Review of Funny Games (1997) by Chads. — 14 Mar 2008
After "Cache", a career high for this filmmaker(so do the tastemakers say; I prefer "La Pianeste"), this shot-by-shot remake of the Belgian original is little more than a placeholder, one can only presume, as a means of introducing himself to a mainstream audience, and hopefully, not a sign of creative burnout.
If you saw Gus Van Sant's "Psycho", you'll know what this new version of "Funny Games" is like. So does a new context change the original Austria script, which was meant primarily for a European sensibility? Yes and no.
No: because recontextualization seems to be absent here due to the lack of domestic signifiers that would place the film squarely in America. The same geographical displacement in "Funny Games" is the stock and trade of Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier.
In spite of its American setting and English-speaking characters, the only indication that we are indeed stateside is the dissonant heavy metal by the avant-garde musician John Zorn(of New York) on the soundtrack(the same music featured in the Austrian original).
No better or worse than the original "Funny Games", if the American version is your first contact with this material, you'll probably have the same positive reaction as the people who saw the disquieting Austrian original.
Yes: in one instance, when Paul(Michael Pitt) picks up the remote control and changes his friend's fate(Brady Corbet, previously best known in Greg Araki's "Mysterious Skin"). Since the majority of American films are blessed with happy endings, Paul makes a correction which aligns "Funny Games" with the European tradition of following through with the narrative's trajectory.
There is no reversal of fortune for Ann(Naomi Watts) and George(Tim Roth). There is proof, however, that "Funny Games" might be directly responsible for the Adam Sandler-vehicle "Click".
This review of Funny Games (1997) was written by Chads. on 14 Mar 2008.
Funny Games has generally received positive reviews.
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