Downhill: Film Review

Downhill: Film Review

Cast: Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Miranda Otto, Zach Woods
Director: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash

Ruben Östlund's 2014 movie Force Majeure was beloved by many.

A film that excoriated a marriage, threw up questions of male ego and dialled up the discomfort, the near 3 hour movie was lauded as a masterpiece.

It seems unlikely Downhill, which is inspired by the film, and follows many of the beats but in half the time, will be mentioned in the same breath.

Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus are Pete and Billie, parents of two, all together on a skiing holiday. However, there are already frustrations inherent among them, with Billie's generally uptight nature clashing with Pete's insistence on being in the moment above all else.

When a controlled avalanche nearly overwhelms the family at a restaurant, Billie is left with the fall-out of the fact Pete grabs his phone and runs off, leaving her and the kids to ostensibly die. As the chasm grows, the family will never be the same again.

Downhill has a tonal mismatch which doesn't help matters.

While Force Majeure dabbled in subtlety (although admittedly took a long time going anywhere), Downhill's halved run time and desire to inject broad bawdy elements within its story means it adds up to feeling like a mix between cringe-worthy comedy and flat moments that simply don't add up.

And yet with Louis-Dreyfus turning in a performance that's somehow excellent beyond the material, Downhill's watchable enough fare - albeit muddled. Icy, muted laughs come as the cordial atmosphere dries up immediately, and the excruciating irritations boil over. Ferrell's downbeat, but his restrained performance doesn't match up to the needs of the film, and he feels at times, out of place.

It's the Euro-stereotypes that flunder the film, with Otto's amusing-to-watch laissez-faire hotel owner ramping it up to 11 and a ski instructor hunk feeling ripped from the pages of another movie. It's these moments that give Downhill a level of inconsistency that's hard to match.

Ultimately, feeling muddled and muddying the waters, Downhill does offer some good moments of comedy if you know where to look. But were it not for Julia Louis-Dreyfus' performance, this film would be more of a downhill experience that its name suggests.