Open on an SUV towing a sailboat down a highway to the tune of opera music while a man and woman guess at song titles. The voiceovers are annoying - almost grating and hokey - but then, these are the voices of rich people, members of the leisure class on their way to a lake home. The couple, George (Tim Roth) and Anna (Naomi Watts), and their son, Georgie (Devon Gearhart), wave to some neighbors out golfing with two young men and arrive at their Thomasville-furnished home.
The family seems picture-perfect in this idyllic paradise until the two young men from next door, clad in white and wearing politely unmentioned gloves, arrive to “borrow eggs.” Of course these men, known as Peter (Brady Corbet) and Paul (Michael Pitt), are sociopathic murderers determined to have some cruel fun with the family.
So begins a struggle for survival spearheaded by the indomitable Anne. Watts (also a producer of the film) could be commendable in this performance if she didn’t do what she does in every movie: take off her clothes and cry. With her lack of “jelly rolls” and streaming nose, this role seems to be a perfect showcase for Watts’ talents. Roth, recalling a scene from Reservoir Dogs, manages to put on an even better hysterical performance than Watts. Maybe it can be chalked up to good acting, but both George and Anne become so irritating by the halfway mark of the film that their torture seems well-deserved. Corbet and the creepily charismatic Pitt are brilliant in their “Beavis and Butthead” interplays (an apt comparison from the movie) and Pitt drives the film along, on pace with his games.
The only weak moments of the film come mainly when the camera is focused on George and Anne. Juxtaposed with the severely intense first hour of the film, the following elongated scene of Anne turning off the TV and struggling to stand up seems like an ungainly intermission. Paul also unexpectedly addresses the camera and even goes so far as to play with the editing - bizarre but innocuous additions to the tone of the film. An obvious but effective ploy is that of the collision between opera and thrash metal at the start of the film, foreshadowing the plot. It is this and the final scene, clean and unsettling, which set (and reset) the mood, convincing me that overall, Funny Games is actually a pretty fun movie.
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2 comments:
re:
"...if she (Naomi Watts) didn’t do what she does in every movie: take off her clothes and cry..."
Nonsense. Did you see her take off her clothes and cry in The Ring, The Ring 2, King Kong, Le Divorce, The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Stay, Eastern Promises, The Shaft...? (I'm not counting the 20+ films that she made before 2001 Mulholland Drive).
If you're ignorant, don't make it known.
(Also posted on richard's blog)
Hey, man, thanks for your comment (on my Funny Games review). I certainly did not mean to offend any Naomi Watts fans with my comment. I obviously realize that there are several movies in which Watts does not appear without clothes on and there are probably even some (that I have not yet seen) in which she doesn't cry. I was simply making a glib remark based on what I, personally, perceive as a trend in many of her films since she "got noticed" by the general public with Mulholland Drive. I don't have any problem with Watts as a person. I've never met her but she seems pretty nice. I, personally, noticed, while viewing Funny Games, what I perceived as redundancies in many (but not all of) the characters she has played since her aforementioned 2001 role. My comment about her, and the review in its entirety, is a personal opinion. I certainly respect the opinions of others regarding Funny Games and the level of innovation Watts employed in her role as Anne. However, I do not appreciate any insinuations that I am ignorant. You are clearly a huge fan of Watts and that's great, but it is unnecessary to insult me over a minor opinion I expressed in one line of a movie review. I am perfectly receptive to differing opinions without the addition of any discourteous comments. I think that you, being so knowledgeable about Watts, are aware that she has appeared without clothing in a handful of movies. Does this make her a bad person? In my opinion, no. Did her acting in Funny Games closely resemble her acting in other movies? In my opinion, yes. End of story. There is no need to defend her. She will never be insulted by my review because she will never read it and my opinion about her acting in Funny Games has not changed because of your comment. Thanks again for sharing your opinion, though. I hope you continue to fact-check my reviews even if they are not about movies starring Watts. If you do comment again, though, please try to leave any negative remarks toward me out. It makes for a bad debate.
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