Egotism is the Center of Downhill’s DOWNFALL (lol)
In this remake of Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure, the ever-great Nat Faxon and Jim Rash who directed one of 2013’s very best films, The Way, Way Back, seem lost in trying to recapture the magic of Östlund’s film instead of giving a fresh, new light (and perspective) of Force Majeure. While it is a problem, Downhill’s story of a family that begins to reevaluate themselves after an avalanche causes Pete Staunton (Will Ferrell) to showcase his egotism, is still admirably made.
The real stars of Downhill are the lead performances of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell who both give their all. They’re the center of the film and are both incredibly compelling to watch. Its airtight runtime of 86 minutes really doesn’t give Downhill its due time to breathe and properly develop their characters, but Ferrell & Dreyfus are ALWAYS at the top of their game. I had no idea how great Ferrell is in a dramatic role, but his character is specifically tailor-made for him. He oozes passive-agressivity and egotism which makes his character impeccably detestable, even during supposedly “fun” scenes. Faxon & Rash present Pete as a selfish, egotistical, coward, who seem only to think of himself and doesn’t seem to care about his family’s safety and well-being, which causes his relationship with Billie (Dreyfus) and his children to fall apart, in such a quick time. This is the most compelling element of Downhill, which was retained from Östlund’s film. The sequence in which Billie & Pete confront each other while Pete’s friend from work, Zach (Zach Woods) and his girlfriend Rosie (Zoë Chao) is fantastic and perfectly showcases the dramatic range of both actors.
Will Ferrell transposes the egotism he so brilliantly put on screen in many of his films and does the exact same thing with it in Downhill, but it is still damn entertaining. I will never tire myself of seeing Ferrell dance while drunk — it’s always when he’s at his funniest. His comedic timing and mimesis imitation of a drunkard is pitch-perfect and it’s probably Downhill’s most tragicomic scene. Some sequences in Downhill are fairly cringeworthy and adopt childish humor, including an elongated sequence in which Billie takes a lesson with a drunk ski instructor whom they almost screw in a cabin, and/or the sequence in which Pete takes his kids to an amusement park. Those scenes add nothing to a pretty tight runtime and would’ve probably been cut if the runtime wasn’t this fucking short.
There isn’t really anything to say about Downhill — it’s a perfectly serviceable remake that breaks absolutely ZERO ground whatsoever. Yes, it’s beautifully shot and scored (my GAWD the music is fire), and its performances are the reason why I mildly enjoyed the film. Disney, however, continues its streak of unnecessary remakes, this time with the SEARCHLIGHT label of their company (this is their first film with the newly “rebranded” [if you will] SEARCHLIGHT pictures, sans FOX). There are international films that really don’t deserve to be americanized because the director did literally everything that needed to be done in the original. There is no new story and/or anything remotely engaging in Donwhill, if you’ve seen Östlund’s film. Just watch Force Majeure instead of giving your money (and your soul) to DISNEY. I still thought, however, that it was mindlessly enjoyable so, there’s that.
✯✯✯
