If you haven’t seen 2014’s Force Majeure, the Swedish picture about a family vacationing in the Alps who experience an avalanche scare and the domestic fallout after, then perhaps Downhill, the American remake, will do something for you. Otherwise, the new picture, an awkwardly pitched comedy-drama with two big stars and some nice scenery, comes up short both by comparison and on its own terms.
Married American couple Billie (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Pete (Will Ferrell) and their sons (Julian Grey and Ammon Ford) embark on an Austrian ski vacation that goes very wrong, very quickly. The central theme of the story – a husband flees his wife and children during a potential life or death event and the family dynamic is irrevocably altered – remains largely intact, but despite the talents of its leads, this tonally uneven remake struggles for clarity and purpose.
Expecting some fun on the slopes, the family becomes embroiled in crisis after a controlled avalanche provides the scare of their lives, turning their outdoor patio lunch into momentary chaos after a massive wall of snow blankets diners. Pete picks up his beloved cell phone – a previous sore spot for Billie – and makes a quick exit, leaving his wife and sons cowering in the white out. It’s over quickly, Pete returning to the table as if nothing happened. But Billie and sons know better, and for his wife, Pete’s fight-or-flight abandonment has rocked their stability and her marital security.
Downhill, a notably inspired title for this picture, was adapted from Ruben Ostlund’s lacerating 2014 predecessor, a painfully awkward, near-perfect black comedy about marital drift amidst character deficiencies, questions of integrity about the person with whom you’ve built a life, and the lengths to which a cowardly man will gaslight for self-preservation.
In the new version, filmmakers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Way, Way Back) jettison most of this pointed commentary and, along with it, the story’s complexities. The material is approximated, in some regards, to the personas of the leads, who mostly play is straight. Casting Louis-Dreyfus and Ferrell is a clear sign that the filmmakers intended comedy – okay, fine, no problem.
But the source material calls for a pointed dissection of the buried fears of an alpha-male, notably his inability to own up to his timidity, or vulnerability. This isn’t Ferrell’s typical wheelhouse, talented as is, and a good portion of the film is our adjustment to seeing the star in morose withdrawl. Just when we have, the picture’s brief 87 minutes is over.
Louis-Dreyfus, the best actress out there without a viable movie career, can turn on a time from her revered comic persona to impressive rage and disillusionment; she’s the only truly interesting part of this film. And the picture has a scene-to-scene identity crisis, playing too light on its feet, at times, for its seriousness, and too serious for its scenes of comedy.
Along for the ride are a too broad Miranda Otto (acting in a different film than everyone else) as an oversexed concierge and Giulio Berruti as a swarthy Romeo of the slopes out to seduce Billie. These diversions are both misplaced and jarring, clearly intended to cater to an audience expecting straight comedy from its stars, which incidentally is how the film has been marketed.
Shuttling from tears to laughs to realism to outright silliness and doing none of it justice, Downhill is watchable due for Louis-Dreyfus and a few fleetingly substantive moments, but do yourself a favor and catch the original instead—a controlled avalanche, indeed.
2 stars.
