A Swedish family's five-day Alpine vacation is the idyllic setting for Force Majeure, a caustic moral tale that would have done Eric Rohmer proud. The photogenic, seemingly perfect upper-middle-class unit is thrust into a psychodrama that's as darkly comic as it is shocking. As the apparently banal events of the holiday play out with deceptive repetition the family’s emotional reactions evolve above an underbelly of heightened tension.
Director Ruben Östlund is surgically precise and unfailingly perceptive in his detailing of the breakdown of family dynamics after an avalanche threatens an otherwise ordinary lunch at a restaurant's outdoor terrace. The husband's sudden run for safety and abandonment of his family appall his wife, who is equally troubled by his inability at first to admit his cowardice.
This unexpected and primal act upsets their equilibrium and launches the delicious turmoil to come.
The violent storm conjured up by the final movement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is effectively used as a recurring motif in this sharply observed and gorgeously photographed film which ironically takes place in the snow-laden Swiss Alps.
Now playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Force Majeure is one of the best films to be released in Toronto this year and Sweden’s choice for next year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar. It stands an excellent chance of making the Academy’s final list of nominees.
