Movie preview – Force Majeure opens at Vancity Theatre Nov 28

– by Shawn Conner

Preceding the Whistler Film Festival by less than a week, Force Majeure opens Friday Nov 28 at Vancity Theatre.

The timing is fitting, since the movie – which made its Vancouver debut at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival – takes place at a ski resort. This resort is in the French Alps, and involves snow. A lot of snow.

A Swedish family is enjoying a nice vacation when, faced with an oncoming avalanche (a controlled avalanche, but the family doesn’t know that), the father (Johannes Kuhnke) commits an act that turns his wife, Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli), against him.

Written and directed by Ruben Östlund, Force Majeure is a dark comedy of manners that at times is played for uncomfortable laughter and at others moments of unexpected drama. The cast is augmented by Kristofer Hivju, a Zach Galifianakis-like wild man whose character Mats is ski buddies with the dad, Tomas, and Mats’ young girlfriend Fanny (Fanni Metelius). Naturally, Tomas’ action – or rather, the discussion of it – carries over to their relationship.

Force Majeure won the Cannes 2014 Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard. It was then selected for the Special Presentations section at TIFF 2014, where it was a huge hit with critics and festival audiences alike. This film has also been chosen to represent Sweden in the bid for Best Foreign-Language Film at the upcoming Academy Awards. For Vancity Theatre showtimes, visit viff.org.

Trailer – Force Majeure:

FORCE MAJEURE (Trailer) from filmswelike on Vimeo.