Downhill: The title says it all in this ill-conceived Hollywood remake of a subtle Swedish comedy/drama
By Karen Gordon
Rating: C
Fans of writer/director Ruben Östlund’s 2014’s film Force Majeure - on which Downhill is based – had reason to be concerned when they heard that there was an American remake co-starring Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
That concern has been realized.
The two actors might be American comedy superstars. but Ferrell especially seems an odd fit. Ferrell specializes in broadly comic man-boys, which is at odds with the tone of the original film - a dark and subtle comedy/drama about a couple trying to come to terms with a revealing moment in their relationship and family dynamic.
Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Hollywood remake that gets snowed under.
Well, there’s good news and bad news for those who loved the original. The good news, such as it is, is that the team that adapted Downhill is downplaying the connection to Force Majeure, calling it more of a riff than a paint-by-numbers remake. And the bad news is that the new version is no Force Majeure.
The two movies have the same basic outline: In Downhill, Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus play Pete and Billie, a married couple who have come to a ski resort in Austria for a much needed vacation with their sons Finn (Julian Grey) and Emerson (Ammon Jacob Ford).
Right from the beginning Pete seems off. While Billie is wrangling the kids, Pete’s checking his phone. One of his co-workers, Zach (Zach Woods), is freewheeling it through Europe with his girlfriend Rosie (Zoe Chao) and Pete seems obsessed by the idea of throwing off the shackles of the responsibilities of life.
On their first full day, the family goes for lunch on an outdoor patio with a beautiful view of the mountains. As they’re sitting there, there’s a rumble and an avalanche begins to form. It’s a controlled avalanche, but nonetheless, it seems to be picking up too much steam and power as it heads straight for the patio. As it gets closer the people panic. Things happen quickly, Billie and the two boys are sitting against the railing and can’t move so she throws her arms protectively around then. Pete who is sitting on the opposite side of the table, grabs his phone and runs off the patio.
The avalanche turns out to be properly contained and, within minutes, things =settle down and people return to their tables. but Billie and her sons are shaken up. Pete tries to pick up where they left off and order lunch. But as Billie and the boys calm down, they take in what Pete did and the family dynamic is shook.
As Billie’s anger and resentment grows, Pete even has trouble admitting that anything went wrong.
At essense, this is a story about what happens when we do something that not only betrays our sense of self, but betrays it in front of the most intimate people in your world, in such a way that things change abruptly and whatever trust they’ve built up in you suddenly threatens to crumble like old clay.
The original film played this as darkly comic. When the husband wouldn’t admit what happened, the wife wondered if she was losing her mind.
In personal relationships, the investment we have in the belief about our partner’s core values is hard to shake, not just because of what it might say about them. As well, Östlund’s films wade into the murky waters of masculine identity. Roil those waters and you have something complex and interesting.
Superficially, Downhill has the same framework, but it pulls its punches and glosses over the very questions the set-up is raising. The sense is that the creative team, directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, didn’t have a handle on what they were trying to do here.
The movie is pitched as a comedy. But in spite of a few scenes, and some cliche overly sexed Euro caricatures (including a pretty funny turn by Miranda Otto as the openly sexual hotel concierge), it’s strikingly not funny. The tone of the film is uneven which just adds to the question of what they were trying to achieve here.
In part, the original worked because the wife was struggling to admit what had happened, and it was driving her crazy, and also rattling her sense of self, making her question her choices. Billie, in Downhill is a lawyer, and clear almost from the get go of what happened. and instead of her questioning her perceptions, her anger dominates, reducing Pete and his weak-kneed waffling, to something not very interesting.
The American version has written in a bit more of a backstory to explain Pete’s various behaviours, to provide reasons about why he may be emotionally MIA. But the film never really does anything with that information. We don’t see it inform Pete and Billie or their dilemma.
There’s no moment of revelation, no working things through to bring context to the character or the relationship.
The film boasts two very distinctive comedy actors in Louis-Dreyfus and Farrell, and then shackles their comedy instincts. Farrell especially seems like he’s in comedy lock-down. Perhaps in the broad comedy the trailers seemed to promise, his schtick would have worked.
But the film as it now stands, takes the joy out of what might have been.
Downhill. Directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. Starring Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Miranda Otto. Opens wide Friday, February 14.