FORCE MAJEURE (Ruben Ostlund, 2014)

-

FORCE MAJEURE, the observational drama from Sweden is a quiet, dynamic study of gender roles between man and woman, husband and wife, placed under the microscope following an unexpected accident. While having their breakfast on the patio of a ski resort in the French Alps, businessman Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke), his wife Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli), and their two children (Clara Wettergren and Vincent Wettergren) witness a "controlled avalanche", a man-made avalanche created to avert the occurrence of a bigger, more destructive avalanche. Tomas assures his family that it's perfectly safe, even videotaping the avalanche in his cellphone. However, as the avalanche draws closer and closer, the guests panic, and Ebba is left aghast at what happens next.   

Tomas goes on with their vacation as if nothing happened. But soon, the elephant in the room needed addressing, and Ebba hounds her husband every chance she gets about what happened. She is shocked more at her husband's response than what he actually did. 

Third parties come in to the equation. Ebba mentions the incident to Tomas' friend Mats (Kristofer Hivju) and his younger girlfriend Fanni (Fanni Metelius), in front of Tomas. Ebba finds a shoulder with Fanni, while Mats tries to rationalize Tomas' behavior, in lieu of Tomas' lack of explanation. Funny enough, Tomas and Ebba's conflict becomes Mats and Fanni's as well as soon as they head back to their own room. Mats' manhood becomes scarred by Fanni saying that he will most likely act like Tomas when faced in the same situation.

While mostly dialogue-heavy, all throughout, but most especially during the first half of the film, FORCE MAJEURE becomes real interesting as the characters' five-day vacation draws to a close. Director Ruben Ostlund injects biting sarcasm into the frame. A sticker of a chicken on their hotel room door irritates Tomas, and; Mats and Tomas gets a case of mistaken identity on the resort's rest area, which further mocks their man ego.  

One may be inclined to side with either the man or the woman perspective in this film depending on personal views about gender roles and parental responsibility. FORCE MAJEURE beckons us to analyze the issue of social expectation on married life from all possible angles, which is why the characters of Mats and Fanni are essential, representing the observers, the third party who shall provide an external point of view. Though in this case, the observers seem to put more gasoline to the fire.

The film is very visual in its depiction of its subject. The avalanche itself is a humongous metaphor of the downhill slope of the characters' marriage. The ice represents the cold and ever-growing distance between Tomas and Ebba. The thick fog is the shroud of mystery between them, where they don't seem to recognize each other anymore.

The film is rightfully entitled so. Force Majeure, a clause in contracts that frees both parties from legal obligation to fulfill the contract in the event of an unforeseeable circumstance to which both parties have no control over, is cleverly depicted in the film's beginning. The contract here therefore being marriage, both a legal and social contract. The film is notable for its unflinching aim to confront us with the issue of survival. It puts the viewer to the test, that in the event of a catastrophe, what will we do? And it tests us so without any prejudice.

RATING: 5/5 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ANINO SA LIKOD NG BUWAN (Jun Lana, 2015)

-
Image
* English title "Shadow behind the Moon" The best term to describe Jun Lana's latest film would be a cinematic charade- a game of identities, of motives, of suppressed passions, and of uncertainty. Or the film equivalent of a Russian doll, if you will. "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" only has three characters- husband and wife Nando (Anthony Falcon) and Emma (LJ Reyes) and military man Joel (Luis Alandy). What started as a seemingly routine banter among friends gradually and intensely escalated into an examination of society, where the definition of immorality is blurred during a time of insurgency.  And in fact, the film does discuss the subject of immorality from various paradigms. When does adultery become acceptable, and to whom? Is sexual liberation more heinous than murder? Why is immorality always a double standard? The film plays out the ideas in endless games. Or are they really games at all? Lana could have stopped there, but he didn...
Read more

TUHOG (Jeffrey Jeturian)

-
Image
Film within a film-structured movies are always interesting watch. Not only do they provide a much-needed deconstruction of form and content of cinema itself, but also that much-needed emotional punch a cinephile would surely love.  Like in BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar, 2004), we witness the characters tell the back story via montage, as if we are part of the cast of characters watching an actual movie. The form was successful in evoking pain and regret, and also of empathy. In TUHOG, Jeffrey Jeturian and screenwriter Bing Lao tackles sensational media in the Philippines, especially in cinema. The film opens as a film producer hears a pitch for a possible movie- a story of a grandfather who rapes his own granddaughter.  The director of the film soon after visits the victim of the crime, Floring (Ina Raymundo). Coercing both she and her mother, Perla (Irma Adlawan) to sell them the movie rights to their story, we witness as exploitation cinema unfolds. To think of it, capitaliz...
Read more

BIGKIS (Neal Tan, 2014)

-
Image
As an advocacy film, BIGKIS (INTERTWINED) gets its message across. The state of maternal healthcare in the Philippines is downright depressing, with mothers seated on the floor of public hospitals due to shortage of beds, medical equipment and hospital staff. The baby better be gaping through the birth canal before the mother receives serious medical attention.  Such social issue has been featured countless times in local documentaries and even in a feature film (2011's BAHAY BATA), but BIGKIS pushes the envelope further by bridging a connection between mother and child by means of breastfeeding, and in doing so, promoting breastfeeding in the process.  As a drama, the film tends to squeeze too much tragedy from the downtrodden lives of its characters that a lot of the dialogue feels staged for us to feel sorry for their countless miseries. Mariel (LJ Reyes), a teenage mother deals with an unwanted pregnancy and worse, the abandonment of her baby's father (Pancho ...
Read more