Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell star as a married couple who have their relationship shaken after near-miss with an avalanche while on a family ski vacation, in the dark comedy/drama DOWNHILL. Nat Faxon and Jim Rash co-direct this American re-make of 2014 FORCE MAJEURE, Swedish director Ruben Ostlund’s biting comedy about how a man’s reaction to danger undermines his relationship with his wife and children. The term “force majeure” means an irresistible compulsion, like the man’s self-preservation response.
Ruben Ostlund’s dark comedy was sharply funny as well as thought-provoking. Like most English-language re-makes of international hits, DOWNHILL is a paler version. Still, DOWNHILL has its moments, comic and otherwise, largely thanks to the fine work of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell. Their comic chemistry and separate work are the major reasons to see this film.
Americans Pete (Will Ferrell), a real estate dealer, and his lawyer wife Billie (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and their two teen-aged sons are on a long-awaited ski vacation at a luxury Austrian resort. That things might go a bit wrong are foreshadowed by the fact that they do not see any other children at the adult-focused resort, unlike the family-oriented one down the road. A strange, intrusive, and sexy hotel employee (Miranda Otto) adds to the slight unease yet the family quickly settles in and get out on the slopes.
But the happy family is unsettled by an incident that happens shortly after they sit down for lunch at an outside restaurant. A controlled avalanche comes shockingly close, sending the customers fleeing in fear of their lives. Although they are only dusted lightly with snow instead of buried under it, the result is devastating for the family as Billie discovers her husband bolted, leaving her to shelter their children on her own. To make matters worst, Pete acts like nothing happened, failing even to acknowledge what he just did.
While DOWNHILL follows the general plot outline of the original film, there are significant differences in both story and tone. The kids in the original are younger, a girl and a boy, while in the remake they are a pair of teen-aged boys, Finn (Julian Grey) and Emerson (Ammon Ford), who are happier with screen-time than skiing with the parents, which shifts the family dynamic. Rather than sharply focusing on the questions raised about his fundamental nature and his relationships with his wife and children, DOWNHILL dilutes that focus with other topics, such as mid-life crisis and grieving for a recent loss of his father. The second couple who are good friends in the original become a younger work acquaintance (played by Zach Woods) and his free-spirited new girlfriend (Zoe Chao), who are a less-welcome intrusion on the family vacation. Kristofer Hivju, the bearded redhead that audiences may recognize from “Game of Thrones,” played the friend in the original and appears briefly in DOWNHILL as a man in charge of avalanche-control for the ski resort, in one of the funnier scenes.
Watching DOWNHILL without seeing the original film might make one wonder why someone would re-make this story, as it seems much like any number of mildly entertaining family dramedies. However, those who did see FORCE MAJEURE will be left disappointed, as this re-make falls far short despite the determined efforts of the cast to add a little spark.
RATING: 2 out of 4 stars
