Downhill

Barely escaping an avalanche during a family ski vacation in the Alps, a married couple is thrown into disarray as they are forced to reevaluate their lives and how they feel about each other.

Based on the 2014 Swedish film 'Force Majeure', Downhill focuses on a families relationship during a skiing holiday and how certain events create powerful emotional impacts for them both. I was excited to see this film actually, I’d seen plenty of adverts for it and it caught my eye, it looked fun and exciting, and I always like seeing some of the cast of ‘The Office’ coming back together too! But genuinely, I liked the mixture of humour and adventure that the film seemed to bring from the trailers. Onto the main question though, is this film worth checking out or does it get caught cold? Here are my thoughts.

With typical family-based films like this, it can often be difficult to get a good and genuine insight into the characters, because the film is usually plagued with cliche character roles which don’t feel realistic at all, this film challenges that really well and helps to give the characters a genuine and realistic feeling. I loved it, seeing the characters all together arguing about how they should take the family photo of each other just gave a great insight into the characters and the dysfunctional family theme -it also is really helpful in terms of giving a good insight into the feeling and themes to be explored in the film too which helps to establish the plot and characters nicely. One of my favourite things about this film relates to the characters, they just feel really exciting and the film manages to overcome the problem of unrealistic and 'in your face' characters which become annoying by keeping them feeling fairly subtle in terms of not jumping straight into their stories and the plot of the film. The film takes its own way of introducing us to the plot and characters by introducing us to the scenery and giving us an insight into the location of the film, it isn't so much of a skiing film really but that element to the film helps to add variation to the film, by giving us segments of the characters skiing, and mixing this into the film has a positive effect because it keeps the film feeling fresh, and helps to prevent the characters from becoming too boring either.

The film definitely doesn't delve into the characters a massive amount, but it's a positive here because it's done so well, the film doesn't aim to be an autobiography for the characters, but instead, it aims to only give us the context and information which is required for us to have a good sense of excitement and engagement for the film, it helps to keep us excited enough so that we can follow the story easily, whilst not delving into the characters too much and wasting time - it has a good balance.

The film manages to create a strong and effective emotional connection too, which is much more important than you may think, because here, during the arguments, the skiing and even small conversations, how the film cleverly gives a clear, yet subconscious emotional message is clever and feels great, scenes like seeing Pete and Billie on opposite ends of the mirror, or facial expressions during the dinners, or even holding each other's hands - it gives a great interpretation of the moods and emotions between the characters, and does so in a way which doesn't jump out at us, but is subtle and doesn't feel too pushed, which helps to keep emotional interactions feeling somewhat realistic and genuine. The purpose of this film focuses on the emotions of Pete and Billie through the various events on the trip, that's the body of the film and the key part of it, and because it is done in a genuine way which feels somewhat like a holiday vlog, it helps to give the film a feeling of realism.

As far as the plot goes, it isn't massively meaty, there isn't the typical key event and scene which defines the whole storyline and film, but the film more takes one of the many events at the start and uses it to help the film to focus on the characters, their stories and their development. The plot though is really good, it feels well made and exciting (partly because of the variation between skiing and the main storyline) but what's most interesting is how the film revolves around emotions from the characters, it feels new and strange, but the film takes the emotions of the characters and makes the most out of them, and to some extent, uses these as the basis for the film, scenes are decided by the moods of the characters, their emotions change and adapt depending on their location and who they are with which feels immersive and clear to understand.

I also really liked the characters in this film, and how they were played. It felt strange to see Will Ferrell in a serious film, but he is really good here, it's just a shame that he always has a feeling to him where you expect him to do or say something silly because it's not the basis of his character here, his purpose is to essentially be the 'bad guy' until the film delves more into his story and his emotions, which is then where we see a much more serious and genuine side to him both as an actor and as a character. Julia Louis-Dreyfus also does a good job, the emotions she has and the responses her character shows is really strong and clear and helps to convey the emotions of her character and the scene well, helping to keep the film a little bit 'fiery' due to the attitude of the character. Like I've said though, the film doesn't aim to give us an in-depth insight into the character's pasts, but instead, it focuses on the emotions and feelings of the characters, and they are well portrayed by the various characters in the film. The characters are really exciting and are portrayed in a way which makes them and their stories worth investing into because we can follow their emotions and the story of them, which helps to get us excited and interested in the film. One of my favourite things in the film relating to the characters though is how well and realistically it resolves conflict between characters, there aren't any heroic 'save the day' ridiculously unrealistic actions, but instead, it does so in a surprisingly realistic and genuine way, this is refreshing and helps to make the characters feel more genuine.

The film wasn't all perfect though and has some problems, some it shares with similar movies, and some it doesn't. One of the problems it does share with other similar movies is, I don't like how it uses the typical sex jokes, throughout the film, these were used by the hotel manager and they just felt quite cringey and awkward, jokes such as being in the sauna naked just didn't match the feeling and seriousness of the rest of the film and just make it feel less serious, and more of a comedy film which it isn't. As well as this I thought the plot of the film seemed to stay too safe, the addition of characters finding someone else when they were going through a bad point, and kids just wanting to watch TV just feels like the creators are playing far too safe here, which hinders the excitement value of the film because it feels like it doesn't have a massive amount to add to the genre in terms of its story.

Another problem I have with the film is how all of the creativity is essentially voided since this film is a remake, it simply just aims to bring it to a bigger screen but there isn't much more to offer here than you can find in 'Force Majeure' - and to be honest, going off ratings of the two films (4.8 vs 7.3) it would probably be worth checking that out instead. The film also feels a little too short, it moves at the right pace but the running time of ~80 minutes feels far too short, and it restricts the film in terms of how enjoyable it can be because there just simply isn't enough for us to put our teeth into.

Overall, I would give this film a 6.5 rating. It's a decent film, and delves into the emotions of the characters well, whilst providing a realistic and genuine feeling to the characters and their relationships with each other. I also liked the story of the film, it's exciting and interesting enough to make us want to invest in the characters and their stories. The film has its fair share of problems though, it just simply doesn't offer enough to make it stand out from the film it is based off, meaning that there isn't a massive amount that the film offers to make it stand out from its counterpart. The actual execution of the film raises problems too, with it, unfortunately, falling for the cliche and cringey sex jokes, and these distract from the seriousness of the film. Would I recommend it? To be honest, it's a fun little film which does have a good set of characters and a decent enough story, and if you haven't seen 'Force Majeure' then you may really enjoy the film and it may be worth checking out, otherwise, it's probably best to stay away because the film doesn't offer much different from its counterpart.

Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did watching the film and writing this review, I hope you have a lovely day! If you would like to check out my Official Facebook page where you can see sneak previous and more film insights then please consider checking out the link below!

https://www.facebook.com/Film-Talk-605719843173687/