Funny Games (1997) - Movie Review

Funny Games is another film where I part from the crowd. The film has a decent 7.6 rating at IMDb. Those ratings make me scratch my head, because I found the film to be tedious and brooding. The few twists that the film delivered were reality-bending scenes that did more to erode credibility than they did to add suspense.

Funny Games is an Austrian film released in 1997. The film opens with an apparently affluent Austrian family heading into the country to a vacation home. They are greeted rudely by their long-time neighbors before settling into their own vacation home. While the father (Georg, played by Ulrich Muhe) and young son (Schorschi, played by Stefan Clapczynski) are down at the boat docks preparing their sailboat, the mother (Anna, played by Susanne Lothar) has an unexpected guest named "Paul" (Arno Frisch).

Anna lends four eggs to the teenage visitor, whose polite facade hides an insidious ulterior motive. The eggs are simply the impetus to begin the "games." After dropping the eggs, Paul asks for four more, which end up with a similar fate. The youngster is joined by his friend "Peter" (Frank Giering) who immediately begins a "logical" inquisition into the situation leading to a confrontation with Georg. Georg ends up experiencing the first blow of many when a golf club connects with his leg (doing more damage than the blow appeared to be capable of). Thus begins the no-holds-barred game, whose rules are written (and re-written) by Peter and Paul.

Although called a game, the concept is nothing more than a boring exploration of violence and terror. The violence is intimate and does not spare sensitivities. If you are an animal lover...prepare to be angry. If you think violence against children is hard to stomach, find another film. This film provides "equal opportunity" examples of violence that finds any target it comes in contact with. A few clues are planted to provide the inevitable "sole survivor" with opportunities to be victorious. But this film thwarts any opportunity for freedom that it allows. In fact, the degree of chance that is permitted in this film made it even harder for me to accept.

The script wasn't bad. The dialogue included some interestingly deep (but twisted) discussions. The film content was troubling, which is likely what everyone else liked about the film. There were no neat bow-ties or fairy tale endings. It breaks from the mold of this genre which might be refreshing. However, the elements that challenged reality or even statistical likelihood nagged at me. I felt as though the script was manipulative and protracted. The writing had strong elements, but the characters were flat and it lacked cogency.

Funny Games featured some strong performances. I thought Muhe was incredible in his award winning film The Lives of Others. He had another strong performance in Funny Games but was relegated to whipping-boy status. Lothar was decent in the stronger role of the two. I didn't really believe the chemistry between them, but individually they were good. Frisch and Giering were menacingly good. They had an interesting combination of country club etiquette and pure evil. The acting was the redeeming quality I found in the film.

I cannot watch a film based on acting alone. How many flops have featured an all-star cast? Too many to count. Funny Games was well cast but squandered away an opportunity to be different and still be credible. For the sake of marching to a different drum, the film stretched reality to the snapping point. I was in disbelief when the film went that direction and felt as if one single scene ruined the entire experience for me. The indiscriminate violence was disturbing, but I could live with that if the film had managed to stay closer to reality. Because of the requirement to suspend belief, I have to non-recommend this film. 4/10.

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