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.
Just for the record, I am not a Will Ferrell or Julia Louis-Dreyfus fan. Their sense of humor is an acquired taste and I still have not warmed up to either one of them. I never liked “Seinfeld” or “Veep” and did not like the majority of Will Ferrell’s movies with one exception, “Stranger Than Fiction,” but that is because the film found the perfect balance of drama and humor and he surrounded himself with a top-notch cast, including Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Queen Latifah, and Tom Hulce. So why go see “Downhill” I hear you ask? Because I enjoyed the original Swedish film that this is based on, “Force Majeure,” and I wanted to see if this iteration would be any good. It’s not. It’s terrible. It is beautifully shot in picturesque Austria and has a good cast attached, as well as Mr. Ferrell and Ms. Dreyfus we have Miranda Otto, Kristofer Hivju, and Zach Woods but that is about as good as it gets. Anything else is purely coincidental.
When Pete and Billie (Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and their two sons take a vacation in the Austrian Alps, everything appears to be perfect: the location, the snow, the food, that is until a controlled avalanche smashes into the deck of a restaurant they are eating at. When it first hits, some people run for their lives, assuming it is a real avalanche and Pete is one of them. Instead of looking out for his family, he grabs his cell phone and leaves Billie and their two boys to fend for themselves. When the chaos dies down, he makes his way back to their table and acts as if nothing happened. Over the next few days, Billie struggles with the fact that had it been a real avalanche, she and her boys would have perished, all because Pete panicked and ran away.
When Billie finally confronts Pete, she reminds him, in no uncertain terms, that he was spineless for leaving them and as a result, his actions have forced her to completely re-evaluate their marriage. He eventually admits that when it happened, he got scared and faced with the “fight-or-flight” response many people experience in dangerous situations, he chose the latter and ran away, now embarrassed by his behavior. Initially unwilling to admit he did anything wrong, stating that Billie was entitled to her perspective of what happened and he was entitled to his, he finally admits he was a coward and breaks down. The next day on the slopes, Billie comes to the realization that other people might have also done what he did, in the moment, and falls down, pretending that she is hurt, giving Pete the chance to come back up the slopes and rescue her, bringing her down in front of their boys, thereby redeeming himself.
The film desperately tries to play to both Ferrell’s and Dreyfus’ comedic strengths but flounders as its infusion of serious drama invalidates any attempt at genuine humor. The original movie, “Force Majeure,” was a straight-up drama with minimized humor and because of that combination, it worked. That is the approach directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash should have taken with “Downhill,” either make it a serious drama with some light comedic elements, or an all-out comedy, incorporating occasional dramatic flourishes. As it stands, “Downhill” never quite reaches the heights of dramatic tension it aspires for, and the intermittent humor, if you could call it that (see Miranda Otto’s over-the-top, sexed-up concierge as an example), slides down the slopes faster than Bode Miller at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. If you are a fan of Mr. Ferrell and Ms. Dreyfus, you might enjoy this a little more, otherwise, I doubt you will be adding it to your must-have collection.
Now available on Digital HD and on Blu-ray™ & DVD May 19th
