Review of Funny Games (1997) by A.j. E — 27 Apr 2008

I actually found Haneke's "Benny's Video" to be really disturbing, so I was really excited to have a crack at this film. For the first oh say 3/4 of the film I was impressed, quite impressed. It was going in the right direction to be extremely disturbing in fact, but then the ending completely killed it for me and I actually disliked the film afterwards. I guess that's perhaps a bit hasty, but I do feel cheated and like I wasted my time.

What happens is that a couple with a young boy are pretty darned Disney style happy until they meet their neighbors. Both of the young lads next door (one of which is the kid from Benny's video grown up into an uneasy looking psychopath) seem harmless enough...until they don't. Suddenly they cripple the Father so he's immobile and then spend a long time tormenting the Mother and playing really "stupid games" with her.

Now without ruining the film for anyone it's hard to explain why I'm so irrate, but I can say they offer one ending, then punish the viewer for wanting it by literally "rewinding" the story and giving a different ending. Also at this point in the film (the end) the one character starts talking to the person watching the film...ala Zach Morris...seriously. Any attempts of mine to take this seriously or to have it have any lasting effect were squashed cold and it's too bad because it really is decent enough up until that point. I guess if you are going to watch it you should, as most seem to like it but I'm going to stay away from this and the remake and stick to things that don't irritate the heck out of me.