What makes a man? Is it, as Jeffrey Lebowski famously opined, "Being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost?"
Swedish director Ruben Ostlund explores what happens when a man--a husband and father--fails to do the right thing at a crucial moment in the darkly funny and, at times, mind-blowingly uncomfortable film Force Majeure.
"Force majeure" means "unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract". An "act of God" as it were. It is the perfect title for this film, where a split-second decision has the power to destroy years of marriage.
The scene in question comes in early in the film, and if you want to watch it with a completely blank slate, feel free to go into it knowing that whether you like it or hate it, it will be an experience you won't soon forget...
...Ok, so Force Majeure follows a family of four: dad Tomas, mom Ebba, kids Vera and Harry, as they vacation at a chi-chi ski resort in the French Alps. On their second day they're having lunch on the patio of a restaurant when they see what appears to be an avalanche starting on a nearby slope. Tomas explains that it's a controlled avalanche (which is typical for ski resorts) and starts filming it, even though the kids are a bit scared. But then the wall of snow gets closer...and closer...and closer. At a critical moment, when the other diners start screaming and running away, Tomas grabs his gloves and phone and runs away from his wife and children, nearly knocking another guy over in the process, while Ebba screams and hunches over the kids.
Well, it turns out it WAS a controlled avalanche and once the powder clears, everyone is safe and the diners return to their seats, including Tomas.
The rest of the movie is the fallout of this event, and GODDAMN is it cringe-inducing at times. "Gleefully uncomfortable", Rotten Tomatoes exclaims. So if Michael Scott's awkwardness on The Office causes you to shudder, best avoid Force Majeure. Especially if you're a man.
Tomas flat-out denies that he ran during the event. He refuses to admit that there's an elephant in the room and it's shitting on his and Ebba's marriage. She begins bringing up the event at dinner with other couples at the resort, at first in a giggling "This guy was so scared, he ran!" way and eventually in a drunken "My husband abandoned me and my children to die" way in one of the best scenes in the movie. Since Tomas was filming the entire incident, she requests that they and the couple they are sharing wine with all watch to make sure her memory isn't faulty and Tomas did, in fact, run. Johannes Kuhnke plays Tomas and does amazing, amazing work playing a man absolutely defeated when faced with his natural instinct to run in an emergency. In one scene, he even becomes hysterical, unable to stop sobbing when he admits that he "hates that guy"--i.e. the part of him that not only ran, but cheated on Ebba in the past and repeatedly failed to live up to his own (or society's?) expectations for a husband and father. This movie is fucking rough, guys.
But if it all sounds as if Tomas and Ebba are being a bit over the top about the incident, that's half of the point. Director Ostlund is able to simultaneously pull the audience's sympathy toward Ebba (wouldn't you also be furious and dismayed if your spouse pulled a similar stunt?), toward Tomas (he fucked up! Forgive him and move on!), and away from both of them (they're wallowing in their own bourgeois pity...in a fucking luxury resort, no less!).
No one is the "good guy" here, and Tomas and Ebba's disgust at one another spreads to the other couple they talk to about it who get into a hilariously predictable argument about "hypotheticals" as soon as they leave Tomas and Ebba's hotel room (their friend, Mats, defends Tomas' actions and then when his girlfriend, Fanny, says she thinks he'd do exactly the same in a similar situation, he fights with her for hours into the night about it).
Ostlund ultimately doesn't give the audience a moral to the story. The question of gender roles lies stinkily in the background, like week-old garbage, but is never addressed directly by the characters. Instead, Ostlund uses the characters' conversations and arguments to show how the male ego is so easily disemboweled and also how making the assumption that Tomas should have immediately protected his children simply because he's male is silly and unrealistic as well. Force Majeure is not a feminist film, nor is is an anti-feminist film, nor is is an anti-male film (although various people may read it as one or more of these things). It's a film that makes you consider the assumptions you make about men, women, mothers, fathers, partners, and yourself. As the characters say over and over "you never really know" how you will act in an emergency situation until you actually experience one.
So, maybe the moral of the story, if there is one, is to make sure you don't start thinking your shit don't stink because you could be as big of a coward as Tomas (or, as smart as Tomas in his instinct to survive, depending on how you view it). Whatever you take from Force Majeure, you can be guaranteed it'll be a hell of a ride.
Grade: A-
