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Oct 28, 2014 By Shawn Hazelett Web Exclusive

A successful businessman Tomas and his beautiful wife Ebba are vacationing with their two children in the French Alps. While lunching on a patio, snow begins cascading down the nearby mountains, growing quickly into an avalanche that bears down on the family. Impulsively, Ebba runs to her children. Simultaneously, Tomas runs inside a café. The danger quickly subsides. Though the family tries to simply resume their holiday, there is a permeating sense that Tomas’ lapse, however momentary, can’t and shouldn’t be ignored.

Force Majeure is both an insightful probe into gender roles and family dynamics and a clever lampoon of fragile bourgeoisie masculinity. Tomas’ many successes cannot supersede what was ultimately a failure at a primitive level, and his rationalizations only shed light on a growing loss of self-worth. Ebba manages all the encouraging words incumbent on a wife but is instinctually prevented from ignoring what might be an irreparable crack in the foundation. Is Tomas’ lapse forgivable because it was so instinctual or is that precisely why it’s unforgivable? Ruben Östlund’s beautifully crafted scenario provokes so many questions and is imbued with so much wit, humor, and tension that few will mind its forgettable third act.

www.magpictures.com/forcemajeure/

Author rating: 7.5/10