Force Majeure (2014)

Absolutely the worst movie.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Force Majeure (Swedish: Turist) (2014) This was a film about snow, families, marriages. Mostly, though, about the survival instinct. A Swiss family takes a vacation in the French Alps. A workaholic father, an attentive and loving mother, a son and a daughter, brother and younger sister. Tomas, Ebba, Vera, Harry. Plus Ebba's girlfriend, who seems to relish a polygamous lifestyle, Charlotte. Mats, an old friend of Tomas's, and his young twenty year old lover, Fanny. Day One. Family together, skis, uneventful. Ends with Vivaldi. Day Two. Family skis in the morning. Lunch, it becomes Avalanche Day. When Tomas grabs his belongings, runs from the scene. Escaping the avalanche, which fortunately never makes impact. Away from his wife. Away from his children. Away from his son calling, "Daddy!". Ebba looks around; she has never experienced anything like this in her life; she is scared; she clutches her children, looking for her husband. Vanished. Laughing, he returns to the table a few minutes later, as if nothing were wrong in the world. That night, dinner with Charlotte and her current man. Tomas insists he did no such thing, he would never run away, of course not. Ebba, plainly shocked into speechlessness. More sharp Vivaldi Concerto No. 2 chords. Day Three. Ebba wants an alone day. She returns to have dinner with Tomas' friends, finally admitting out loud how depressed she is that Tomas denies fleeing from get and the kids. Expressed how afraid she was. Tomas says nothing, even after they watch the video he filmed, clearly showing him running away. Discussion regarding survival instincts. Fanni tells Mats that she feels he would probably react as Tomas had because of his personality. He understandable takes offense and things are different between them after that. Vivaldi. Day Four. Guys day. Mats & Tomas are skiing alone. Mats convinces Tomas to try scream therapy. Tomas feels better. He returns to the hotel but cannot find Ebba. He goes back out and finds himself at a rave party. Non Vivaldi screaming music with sharp chords. Screams more. Pivotal scene. Outside their room, as they're children eavesdrop and hug each other in consolation, Thomas cries out that he hates that bad part of him, that he also suffers. Hates his cowardice. Here cheated in games with the children. Confesses to cheating in past. Final Day. Very foggy day. Ebba is lost in the snow. Tomas tells the children to stay where they are, leaves them to search for his wife. Follows her voice, successfully carries her back to reunite his family. Film ends with another scene showing how we react in survival situations. A bus ride down a winding mountain with sharp turns and driver is obviously not very skilled. Ebba panics, demands to be let out. Overreacting? The bus full of tourists is panicking, screaming, rushing out. Mats very firmly tells everyone to leave in a logical manner, women and children first, otherwise people will get hurt. Success. Charlotte (who previously stated she loved risks) remains in the bus along with a handful of others. Would the purpose of this scene be to show that Ebba can also overreact in what she deems to be a survival instincts situation? Still, she stays with her children by her side. They walk down the mountain. Close curtain. Three things. From a psychological standpoint, I liked this film, its exploration of what we do in a fight or flee survival situation, its refusal to take a side. Secondly, I personally do not feel that Tomas redeemed himself by saving Ebba on the last day of their vacation. Though since Ebba does not seem to want a divorce, I can see why she convinced herself that he did. Thirdly, weird music, sharp Vivaldi that serves as an interlude between days, maybe as foreshadowing to danger, was not to my liking. Other scenes of whiteness and snow and emptiness played well into overall message in film. For this film, the typical Scandinavian somber tone is apposite. Great camera work, Simple premise plays out well. Gives much to ponder. Haibun, "haikai writings", is a prosimetric (written partly in prose and partly in verse) poem in which a haiku is included after the prose, serving as its climax or epiphany. #Haibun #PoemReview

For me, the main theme of the movie is owning up to yourself.I think the film is at its best when Tomas is confronted with is actions, first when Tomas and Ebba takes a beer with another couple, and then after the dinner with Tomas' friend and his girlfriend.Off course, Ebba has a problem with Tomas leaving them during the avalanche, but I think the problem grows much bigger when Tomas denies it. The moments of denial are brilliantly played, in my opinion.I think the discussion between Tomas' friend and his girlfriend afterwards also is interesting. But here, I think the roles are switched. Because the girlfriend first comes with accusations, and then, when he wants to discuss them, she backs away and just tell him to forget it. If the accusations are legitimate or not is not possible to know for us. But it is clear that they need to be resolved in one way or another. And they are not. Just as Tomas' and Ebbas situation is not resolved until Tomas' breakdown.The situations where the film is most confusing to me are the "accident" of Ebba in the mountains, and the scene in the bus at the end. They seem a bit out of character for her, and they also seem constructed and not entirely believable. They make me question whether the main concern for Ebba is her children, or her husband taking care of her. It is totally irresponsible for Tomas to leave his children in the middle of the slope searching for Ebba. It is also strange that Ebba in the bus, suddenly is not concerned for her children anymore.I like how the film contrasts the dramatic event with our protected lives. If we always live in our safe bubbles, there are sides of ourselves and of our close ones, that we are never confronted with.

. . . 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 expected to really like this film but overall I didn't enjoy it. There were some moments I enjoyed and I liked the couple who visit the main characters. But the whole thing is slightly strange and does not quite add up to me. For example the hotel staff member who observes the family yet does little else. The family themselves - they seem to have no fun and the kids never once object to this slightly tiring ski holiday with terrifying avalanche etc. I felt very sorry for the little boy in the family ! I guess that is the point - the father is patriarchal at the beginning of the film. But it sort of left me cold and definitely puts you off a ski holiday in such an alpine resort with cold large hotels and horrible roads etc etc .... I didn't really get this film at all. I would not recommend it.