A couple and their young son are vacationing at their lakeside house, when they are preyed on by two preppy-looking, homicidal young men.

CRITIQUE

Funny Games is a movie that by all right should work better than it actually does; it’s a fairly dark, chilling horror-thriller, while Naomi Watts and Tim Roth do a solid job as the couple tormented by the young psychopathic killers here.  But the result is oddly paced and hard to watch; writer/director Michael Haneke (remaking his own 1997 Austrian film) offers little in the way of hope or redemption here, and ultimately it all just falls somewhat short.

The tale starts off well, as we meet the characters and they arrive at their lakeside house.  But it soon becomes clear that something is going on; when the young men first show up, supposedly guests of their neighbors, there is something just enough that is off about them to raise suspicions, and Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet do a good job giving them a good blend of country club innocence and emotionless violence.

But Haneke also films this oddly, pacing it very slowly and letting shots linger without anything happening, which just adds to the draggy feeling of it all.  The first two-thirds feels somewhat repetitive, and though the final third takes some interesting twists, there’s still only a certain amount that one can take of these characters being played with like this.

The killers are kept purposely undeveloped, but it’s a bit frustrating that Watts and Roth’s characters aren’t given a bit more shading along the way.  Haneke also has Pitt talk to the camera at times, and then throws in a sequence late that, while I won’t give it away here, feels like a complete and absolutely-unexplained cheat; he breaks the rules of filmmaking in a way that really undercuts whatever good will the script has managed to build.

Ultimately there are things here that do work:  there is some nice tension, we are drawn into the moment of the characters’ story, and there is no doubt that I was hooked on a certain level, wanting to know how things would come out, while Haneke does keep things unpredictable.  Unfortunately, on other levels I was turned off, there are decisions here that don’t work, and the ending left me cold.  So the result is a mixed bag; there are people who may like this a lot, but others are liable to be completely turned off, and this could have worked a lot better.

THE VIDEO

Funny Games is presented in either widescreen or full screen, depending on which side of the disc you play.  The images are often too shadowy; though it may be intended, it’s often not very visually-enticing.

THE AUDIO

Funny Games is presented in English 5.1 Dolby Surround.  Dialogue, music and sound effects come through clear.

THE EXTRAS

Though it would have been nice to hear Haneke on a commentary explaining some of his choices, there are no extras here at all.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Very borderline.  If you like this kind of stuff, give it a chance, but if it doesn’t sound like your cup of tea steer clear.