DOWNHILL (Sundance 2020 Premiere)

I didn’t realize this movie would be coming out so quickly after seeing the World Premiere at Sundance.  But obviously they wanted to capitalize on a Valentine’s Day release. It’s not exactly a romantic movie, but this dramedy does deal with the disillusionment of love and a marriage falling apart after a husband (Will Ferrell) instinctively goes into flight mode – instead of fight mode, to save his wife (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and two sons, upon seeing an avalanche about to descend upon them while dining alfresco at a upscale ski resort. Once he takes off running, remembering to grab his phone, but never a look back at his family, it changes the way his wife views him. Even his kids feel embarrassed of their father’s “every man for himself” actions.

Downhill is inspired by the 2014 film Force Majeure by Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, which I remember seeing at the Philadelphia Film Festival that year, but if I was just guessing on what year it screened I would have said 2016 or 2017, it still seems fresh in my mind.  I think because the plot delivered such a tragic/comedic original human dilemma, where you really feel for both sides.

And yet, Billie (Louis-Dreyfus ) is the heart of the film, retaliating with humorous tension-filled passive-aggressive behaviors to the hilt. She continues to find little ways for she and the children to distance themselves from Pete (Ferrell). And Pete’s refusal to own his actions only makes the situation more and more uncomfortable.  Some of the moments of marital strife are similar to “Force Majeure” others are more Americanized, but through it all you find amusement & empathy during this family vacation gone wrong.

One of my favorites from “Game of Thrones” who played Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) has a cameo. He was actually in the original movie as one half of the couple who witness the breakdown when Billie and Pete finally address the elephant in the room, as up until this point no verbal mentions of Pete’s actions have been expressed.  I wish they would have cast Kristofer in the same role this go-round, it would have been far more entertaining. The actor that takes his place in Downhill, (Zack Woods) is spontaneously funny in the below post screening Q&A, but his character is just awkward without being amusing in the least.

Is Downhill as good as the original? No, of course not. Although, I do remember there being a number of unnecessarily slow, extraneous scenes in “Force Majeure”, so co-directors and writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (Academy Award winners for The Descendants which they co-wrote with Alexander Payne) do create a tighter script in “Downhill”; yet the movie is also missing some of the subtleties of things farther under the surface, which foreign films seem to capture so well.

T&T @LAMB rating 2.5 outta 5