Force Majeure (2014)

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

With Ruben Östlund just having won the Palme d'Or for The Square, he could look back at Force Majeure as having given him a foot in the door for Cannes recognition. Watch out for the IMDb synopsis, giving the impression this is a survival story. It's nothing of the sort; the family are not actually in the avalanche, no one is harmed in what was a controlled avalanche. The key is that for a split second, it appears to get out of control, and the husband's reaction breaks down trust in his marriage. Force Majeure is essentially Scenes from a Marriage in the Snow, a marriage drama in which the wife struggles with abandonment issues, and the family could come apart. This, and some beautiful, striking photography are two key qualities of the film, though those out only for an action/survival story will not appreciate this.On the down side, Force Majeure does drag in parts; Östlund can't expect to be Ingmar. The end, with the bus, where the roles of wife and husband are reversed, does lack subtlety- yes, it turns out we don't know how we'll always react, and perceived brushes with death, however mistaken, will lurk behind every single corner. Still, it's obvious why Östlund would have established himself as a director to watch with this.

Wounded machismo and domestic disintegration are the order of the day in Swedish director Ruben Ostlund's comedy drama Force Majeure. Holidaying together at a fancy ski resort in the French Alps, the family at the centre of the story are presented as the pinnacle of bliss and success. Mum Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) and Dad Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke) and both good-looking and financially comfortable, and along with their children Vera (Clara Wettergren) and Harry (Vincent Wettergren), make for a Kodak-cute unit, highlighted in the opening scene where they are badgered into posing for a few snaps by a tourist photographer. Tomas is taking a break from his busy work- life, and Ebba is happy to have her husband by her side for a week. As they ski, nap and dine together, frequent explosions - creating 'controlled avalanches' - boom in the distance, suggesting that something troubling is looming.On their second day. the family relax in a cafe when an avalanche starts to rush in the distance. What begins as curiosity and excitement soon turns to terror as it appears that the giant wall of snow is heading straight for them. They are engulfed in mist, but are relieved to discover that the avalanche came to a halt some way off. As the fog clears, Ebba still embraces her children, while Tomas is nowhere to be seen, although he has remembered to save his iPhone. It would seem that the husband and father isn't quite the man they thought he was, and this sets off an incredibly uncomfortable yet shrewdly funny breakdown of the photogenic unit over an increasingly long week away. At first, Tomas refuses to admit any wrongdoing, but is pecked away at by his wife and eventually confronted in two particularly uncomfortable scenes over dinner and drinks. Even his buddy Mats (Game of Thrones' Kristofer Hivju) struggles to defend his cowardly actions.Shot with a Michael Haneke-esque eye for emotional violence and domestic unravelling, Force Majeure is often far more awkward than the work of Ricky Gervais, thanks to Ostlund's ear for witty, realistic dialogue and some committed performances from the leads. Tomas' fall from hard-working patriarch to emasculated cry-baby is both brutal and utterly hilarious. Ostlund clearly doesn't like the privileged bourgeois, and has fun picking them apart. The most wince-inducing scenes are somewhat relieved by the comedic timing of Hivju, who inspires humour by merely reacting to the horror playing out in front of him, siding with his friend as his much-younger girlfriend Fanni (Fanni Metelius) comforts Ebba. The gender divide is drawn in the snow, and thanks for a conversation between Mats and Fanni where the latter throws hypotheticals at her recently-divorced fella, this is perhaps the worst film in the history of film to watch with your partner. While it could have benefited from a running-time trim, Force Majeure leaves you with the disturbing idea that you may never truly know the people closest to you.

. . . as it led to the job termination of Ima Hogg, USA TODAY's final full-time film critic, and perhaps America's last major print media movie reviewer. Ms. Hogg's career suicide kicked off when she included FORCE MAJEURE on her 2014 "Top Ten" listing. To make room for FORCE MAJEURE, Ms. Hogg had to leave such Crowd Pleasers as AMER!CAN SNIPER, MOCKINGJAY, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, CAPTAIN AMER!CA: WINTER SOLDIER, and THE LEGO MOVIE off her Top Ten Honor Roll. "What's wrong with that?" you might argue, "Everyone's entitled to her own opinion!" Reading between the lines, what vexed the brass at USA TODAY and many other major media outlets with female "film critics" was their consistent string of superlatives heaped upon FORCE MAJEURE as it penetrated the film fest circuit from Cannes to Canada. Sometimes Payola can take the form of a Booty Call in the arms of some Swedish PR Flac dude built like Thor. Otherwise, no one in her right mind would put MAJEURE's yawner of a Swedish Meatball in their top 250 flicks-of-the-year list, let alone within sniffing distance of Top Ten Anything. If made by Americans, the only distinction coming the way of FORCE MAJEURE would have been multiple Razzie Awards.

I had heard the basic plot of this film described and was curious how it would work. I assumed that the main event of the avalanche would be a bigger moment and with lasting physical consequences (for some reason I pictured the family alone in a cabin for the tensions to build). Instead the traumatic event of the film is less impacting in its physical moment, almost to the point where I wondered what the film would do for the remainder of its two hour running time. What it does is slow but satisfying in the way it unfolds. From this moment we watch the characters fracture and struggle; as individuals and as a family. It is not wholly successful but in the main part it plays out well.The slow pace and long takes are part of the film working, as they set a tone of tension which mostly exists in a vacuum of silence. This occurs not only in the context of the landscape, but also in the smaller shots – for instance the amount of time we spend behind the characters as they stand with their backs to us. I liked the slightly invasive feel this gave the film, as it did feel like we were watching scenes play out, rather than them being played out for the viewer. This relies a lot on the cast to deliver within this space, and mostly they do. Some of the characters feel added for the sake of the narrative, but in the case of the lead two they are strong in their individual and joint performances. The tension between them, and their own struggles as people, are presented in a convincing and engaging way. It doesn't matter that you do not like the characters per se, but they are interesting – even if I ended the film not liking who Tomas is, I enjoyed understanding him better.The pace is at times a bit too slow and the running time a bit long, but mostly the film controls it very well. It is impressive how well the tone and pace is established in the shoot, and the design and construction of the film comes together. Mostly though it is a film made in the small moments, the interactions, and the internal fracturing/testing of characters. The conclusions are not cheerful perhaps but it is cleverly done and I enjoyed how well it delivered the characters.