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Funny games (18)
Star rating: ***
Dir: Michael Haneke
With: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet
Naomi Watts, once to be found in the grip of King Kong, is in the clutches of more sinister forces in Michael Haneke's horrifying thriller.
A contented little family, with Watts and Tim Roth as the parents, have driven to their Long Island holiday home in search of R&R. Following the arrival of a couple of malevolent teenagers, what they end up with is sturm and drang on a major scale.
If the plot is familiar from Haneke's 1997 film of the same name it won't be the only thing. The 2008 version is a near shot-by-shot remake of the Austrian original. The moral of the story, that movie violence exerts a seductive, corrupting hold, has not changed either. Only the cast
is different.
Hollywood-style remakes frequently take what was right in a film and make it seem vaguely wrong or out of place. Writer-director Haneke (Hidden, The Piano Teacher) hit
on a successful if controversial blend of mayhem and message
first time around, so it makes
sense to replicate it. Whether it
will seem that way to those looking for a new spin is something else.
This version is worth seeing for the performances alone. While Tim Roth is no match for Ulrich Muhe (The Lives of Others) in the original, Watts is excellent, a Hitchcock blonde from the old school, all sharp edges and gaping vulnerabilities. The brattish tormentors, ably played by Michael Pitt and Brady Corbett, are suitably enraging.
As they turn to the camera with questions for the audience - "You're on their side, aren't you?" - it's impossible not to become caught up, complicit even, in what we are seeing, and feel sullied as a result. A gripping watch, though not an easy one.
12:55am Thursday 3rd April 2008
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