The Skinny:
Two men take a family captive in their cabin.
The Good:
Well, I watched this movie last night and have a hard time saying what’s “good” about it without sounding like I recommend the movie (I don’t). But there are certain aspects of the film that are really sticking with me, even today, and to me that’s a sign of a “good” movie.
Without spoiling anything, I think I can say that the way the “capture” of the family takes place is interesting. The two villains come to the family peacefully and politely, and gradually turn things into a hostile situation. And the way the villains deal with the family is unconventional, as their motives are unclear.
I also enjoyed the music - or lack thereof. Typically in thriller movies, the soundtrack kicks in to say, “Hey audience, I bet you didn’t recognize that this hide-and-seek scene is meant to be tense, so we’re gonna screech some violins to drive home that point!” But if I’m not mistaken, Funny Games only has some music at the beginning and end, and that’s it. I can’t think of any film in recent memory that does that and still has some decent scares.
Finally, the pacing/timing of many of the scenes, combined with the way those scenes were shot, were very effective too. Again, going back to typical thrillers, they often use loud music, jerky camera movements and predictable scares to evoke emotion. In Funny Games, there are many scenes where the camera is focused in one place for several minutes at a time while a character tries to figure something out or escape. So the constant feeling of “Oh my gosh, are the bad guys gonna walk in on this?” was pretty strong.
The Bad:
It seems clear early on in the film that the filmmakers are scolding the audience for watching the family’s unfortunate situation, as one of the villains breaks “the fourth wall” and reprimands the audience a few times. That’s an interesting approach to take, however, the idea is never really followed up on or integrated into the film in an effective way, so it just seems more of a distraction/annoyance than anything else.
On that note, the film reminded me of the Saw series in that the villains offered the family to participate in “games” for their survival. And although I found myself caring quite a bit about the family’s well-being, the games were poorly executed and, like breaking the fourth wall, never became an integral part of the story.
The Ugly:
There is a moment in which time is reversed and a scene is played over again, and though elaborating would ruin a key point in the story, I felt totally cheated afterward, and was tempted to just walk away.
The Bottom Line:
Though the film seems to want to send a message to the audience about being ashamed for watching other people endure pain, the message wasn’t consistent, which resulted in an unbalanced final project. I think if they took the preachy stuff out and reworked some of the scenes (and ending!) a little, this would have been a really great unconventional thriller!
Score:
Technorati tags: Funny Games, movie reviews
