{"id":6052,"date":"2024-10-14T16:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T20:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6052"},"modified":"2024-10-15T00:11:03","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T04:11:03","slug":"force-majeure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/14\/force-majeure\/","title":{"rendered":"Force Majeure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Force Majeure<\/strong> (2014)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Magnolia Pictures\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 118 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (some language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ruben Ostlund\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ruben Ostlund\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ola Flottum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Fredrik Wenzel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 7, 2014 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren, Vincent Wettergren, Kristofer Hivju, Fanni Metelius, <\/strong>Brady Corbet, Jakob Granqvist.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spoken in Swedish w\/English subtitles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

WARNING<\/strong>: This review may contain spoilers. Normally, I don\u2019t like to drop those, but I may need to in order to illustrate a few key points. I\u2019ll try to be as vague as possible, but if you plan to see this film (and I advise against it), you should skip reading this review.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You\u2019re watching a movie and the realization slowly creeps in that the people in it are complete a**holes. Have you ever had this experience? Unfortunately I did as I endured Force Majeure<\/strong>, a Swedish-made drama about the aftereffects of a near-catastrophe on a vacationing family. Everybody in it is an a**hole! Even the kids are little a**holes. These people got on my damn nerves. As such, I didn\u2019t give a hoot about any of the characters affected by the central crisis. I realize I\u2019m going to get a lot of flak from people who like this movie. I\u2019ll probably be described as \u201cshallow\u201d and \u201cshort-sighted\u201d for my negative review, but I DON\u2019T F***ING CARE. To me, Force Majeure<\/strong> stands as yet another reminder that subtitles doth not a great movie make. Subtitles do NOT automatically qualify a movie as fine cinema. If you go by that logic, then foreigners must love the hell out of The Lone Ranger and Battleship. This is one of the many lessons I\u2019ve learned as a lifelong movie lover and I now impart this nugget of wisdom unto you, the reader.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The story begins with a family of four on a ski vacation in the French Alps. Dad Tomas (Kuhnke) is supposed to spending quality time with his loved ones- wife Ebba (Kongsli) and kids, Vera and Harry (real life Wettergren siblings)- but his cell phone constantly rings, distracting him from his family. One day at lunch, they look on in horror as a controlled avalanche grows out of control and heads straight for the building. Tomas grabs his cell phone and runs, leaving his family to fend for themselves. That crisis turns out to be a false alarm, but it\u2019s nothing compared to the resulting fallout from Dad\u2019s act of cowardice. Ebba is understandably pissed at him, but she\u2019s a passive-aggressive type who doesn\u2019t let on right away that she\u2019s angry. Instead, it comes out gradually and at the most inappropriate times, like when they\u2019re socializing with couples they meet at the hotel. Ebba just can\u2019t let it go (all you husbands out there know how frustrating this is, right?) and her anger creates friction between another couple- Mats (Hivju) and Fanni (Metelius)- who debate (for HOURS!) what he\u2019d likely do in the midst of a crisis. At first, Tomas denies and justifies, but after he sees cell phone footage of his actions, he feels tremendous guilt.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, now come the spoilers along with a few questions. A chance at redemption comes in the form of another crisis. Did Tomas deliberately put his family in harm\u2019s way in order to redeem himself? If so, does Ebba realize it? If that\u2019s the case, then basically she\u2019s just giving him this one, right? That\u2019s what was going through my mind during the climactic scenes. Oh, wait a minute. That was the false climax<\/em>. How silly of me to forget. After the matter appears to be resolved, the family and all the other guests at the hotel face another situation. It involves an apparently incompetent bus driver who can\u2019t navigate his way along the twisty mountain road. If he\u2019s that inept, why is he driving? Why hasn\u2019t hotel management fired his ass? Must be somebody\u2019s brother-in-law. So what about the kids? How are they affected by all the drama? They behave like little brats. When they\u2019re not yelling at their parents to go away, they\u2019re crying about the possibility of a divorce. Tomas and Ebba argue a lot during the course of the movie. The other character of note is this hotel janitor who stands around smoking cigarettes and watching the drama play out without uttering a single word. Maybe he\u2019s witnessed such scenes so many times that it\u2019s no big deal. Who knows? His character is never fully explained.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I do understand the point of Force Majeure<\/strong>. It asks the viewer how they would react in a crisis situation. Would you run or play the hero? We may say the latter, but there\u2019s no way to know for sure unless we find ourselves in such a situation. As Mats explains, our survival instinct may kick in and it would then become a matter of self-preservation. It\u2019s an interesting subject and one I\u2019d rather debate in the context of a better movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Force Majeure<\/strong> is colossally annoying. I didn\u2019t like the characters at all, but you already know that. Maybe I\u2019m being too harsh calling them all a**holes, but that\u2019s the one word that kept flashing in my head (in BIG neon letters!) throughout the whole movie. That\u2019s not to say the acting is bad. On the contrary, it\u2019s actually pretty good assuming the characters are supposed to be unlikable a**holes. The cinematography is also quite good. Aesthetically, writer-director Ruben Ostlund does a fine job. It\u2019s nice to look at except it\u2019s NOT supposed to be a travelogue. There\u2019s nothing wrong with the basic premise. It\u2019s the rest of it that stinks on ice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0At just under two hours, it feels interminably long. I just wanted it to be over. When the title card announcing their final day of vacation came up, I said \u201cThank God!\u201d loud enough for my neighbors to hear. It\u2019s excruciating. One scene actually made my head pound and ears hurt. As the closing credits began to roll, I said \u201cNext time, go to the beach!\u201d out loud. I couldn\u2019t help it. I was so frustrated and aggravated by Force Majeure<\/strong>. I guess what it all comes down to is that it just rubbed me the wrong way. And I may be alone in my opinion of this movie as it\u2019s been selected as Sweden\u2019s entry for this year\u2019s Academy Awards. Oh well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A funny thought crossed my mind on the way home. What if this was an American movie starring Chevy Chase? LOL! He\u2019d probably be the cause of the avalanche. National Lampoon\u2019s Ski Vacation, it has a nice ring to it. Note to self, contact Matty Simmons.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Force Majeure (2014)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Magnolia Pictures\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 118 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (some language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ruben Ostlund\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ruben Ostlund\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ola Flottum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Fredrik Wenzel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 7, 2014 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren, Vincent Wettergren, Kristofer Hivju, Fanni Metelius, Brady Corbet, Jakob Granqvist.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spoken in Swedish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Force-Majeure-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6052"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6235,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052\/revisions\/6235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}