Force Majeure

Geronimo1967

Aug 24, 2024

7/10

Tomas" (Johannes Kuhnke), wife "Ebba" (Lisa Loven Kongsli) and the kids "Vera" (Clara Wettergren) and "Harry" (Vincent Wettergren) travel to the French Alps for a skiing holiday. The first thing you might notice from the initial photography is just how precariously positioned their resort is, and just how seriously the local authorities take the risk of avalanches. It is one of those snowy phenomena that causes a stir amongst this ostensibly loving family. It, itself, isn't especially perilous but with the snow heading towards them "Tomas" does something that his wife really struggles to come to terms with. As they attempt to continue with their holiday, the tension between them becomes unbearable for each, for their children and for their friends "Mats" (Kristofer Hivyu) and "Charlotte" (Karin Myrenberg Faber) who is, herself, having quite a bit of off-piste fun to the chagrin of "Ebba". It's quite an intriguing premiss, this one, as it asserts then questions some stereotyping about the roles of the characters. It challenges the more traditional "hunter/gatherer" responsibility "Tomas" is supposed to have whilst also demonstrating what I found to be a degree of cruelty from "Ebba" that seemed way more destructive than she probably intended and the ultimate aim of which wasn't remotely productive. The denouement will probably divide opinion, and to some extent it offers a degree of vindication but essentially it asks us to rationalise the concept of panic (using hindsight) - and that's the thought it provoked most from me as the couple have to come to terms with something inexplicable and intangible. The acting is fine, as is the writing and there are some beautiful snowscapes that will either appeal to or deter would-be skiers, but the story is definitely not one that's straightforward.

Almost no scene in a movie is as important as its final scene since the final scene has the potential to make or break the entire movie, no matter how good or bad the rest of it is. Perhaps in no other movie is this fact as clear as in this one becase its final scene ruins the entire movie, which would have a been a masterpiece otherwise. This scene - dubbed the "bus scene" by many - flies in the face of most of the thematic and cinematic genius that the rest of the movie is, not least because of a major unexplained and unjustified contradition in the character of one of the protagonists. After listening to the director's take on the scene in various interviews, my conviction that it was a huge blunder has only increased because, first of all, Ruben Östlund (writer-director) admits that the scene was basically a recreation of a viral YouTube video (perhaps it's not the best idea to copy-and-pase viral videos into your movies Östlund, especially into the final scene?). Secondly, in every interview I've seen, Östlund very deliberately evades tackling the subject of Ebba's (Lisa Loven Kongsli) contradictory behavior in the scene and instead chooses to focus solely on Charlotte's (Karin Myrenberg), despite the fact that Charlotte is a relatively peripheral character in the movie. This suggests that even he is aware of how much of a fuck-up the scene was with respect to Ebba's behavior, so he tries to avoid addressing this fuck-up by pivoting to praising his writing of Charlotte in the scene. One wonders why and how Östlund blundered so much by including this scene when the movie would have been perfect ending with the scene right before it. All this is to say that if you're the kind of person that can enjoy a movie for the "journey" of it rather than the ending, no matter how bad the endind is, then this movie is for you. But if you're the kind for whom the ending matters, then it may do you some good to avoid this one. Also, for those, like myself, for whom morality and ethics matter, it would do you well to know that Ruben Östlund is a known racist (see the plot or synopsis to his 2011 movie Play) so it might not be the best idea to promote his work.