Film Reviews

Funny Games U.S.

• Rating:
• Director: Michael Haneke
• Starring: Michael Pitt
• Details: UK / USA / France / Austria / 107mins (16).

Dos and Don'ts of Michael Haneke's Funny Games U.S: DO go see Michael Haneke's Funny Games U.S; DON'T get up in the middle of the film to go to the toilet and miss the best part. Remakes are nothing new in Hollywood, but the new tactic is for a director to remake his own film. The original Funny Games was released in 1997 and was a bleak, mentally draining home invasion thriller that implicated the audience in the horror. Cut-and-paste: Tim Roth and Naomi Watts are a happily married upper-class couple that holiday with their only son in an affluent lakeside neighbourhood. Their chilled-out break turns to horror when two white glove-wearing teenagers knock on their backdoor looking to borrow some eggs. Polite, pleasant and chatty, tensions rise when they refuse to leave. Soon, the family is subjected to mental and physical torture. Haneke (Cache) is a master at making the audience feel uncomfortable. Like someone who downloads child pornography might defend themselves that they never actually touched a child, but are making it okay for others to in the process, Haneke applies the same to violence: by watching this, we're responsible for what happens to this family - we're advocating it, giving it a reason to exist. Pitt, who plays psycho #1, Paul, regularly turns to the camera and asks the audience what it wants. Violence, probably. There has been talk about the unnecessary level of brutality but bar one bloody shot, violence for the most part is off screen. This isn't just to shield us from the horror, though - Haneke wants us to regret what we didn't see, forcing us to question ourselves and our thirst to see these people die. A horror-thriller played out through dialogue is tough to pull off, but Haneke has five great performances to thank that it did and all concerned have earned their corn here.

Review by Gavin Burke