Downhill

The movie Downhill was screened at Sundance this year but I didn't have a chance to see it.  I was very intrigued by the premise so I decided to check it out yesterday now that it is in wide release.  Pete (Will Ferrell) and Billie (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) Staunton are on a ski holiday in the Austrian Alps with their two sons.  After they are caught in a controlled avalanche, the two of them have different reactions which puts them at odds with each other.  This incident hangs over them for the rest of their trip and the tension builds and builds until the two of them must decide what they want from their marriage.  I am always up for a good dark comedy but I didn't like this movie as much as I thought I would.  Despite a relatively short 85 minute runtime, I found this movie to be incredibly boring at times.  There are many long and sustained shots of the family riding the ski lift and skiing down the mountain and the skiing sequences are not even that exciting.  The avalanche sequence is even pretty anticlimactic.  As much as I like Louis-Dreyfus, I really disliked the character of Billie.  I found her to be incredibly bossy and overbearing before the incident happened and, in my opinion, her reaction to what happened was just an excuse to treat Pete badly.  I honestly didn't understand why he was working so hard to gain her forgiveness because he seemed pretty checked out of their marriage before the incident happened.  Also, the resolution seemed very abrupt and not at all earned.  This movie either needed to be more dramatic with a real emotional connection between the characters or it needed to be funnier (the talents of both Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus are squandered here).  I recommend giving this one a miss.

Note:  Downhill is based on the Swedish film Force Majeure and many believe that it is an inferior remake.  I haven't seen Force Majeure (I missed it when it screened at the Broadway) but now I really want to!