Remade in English last year for HBO, Ingmar Bergman’s SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE, his long-form ‘70s drama about a picture-imperfect marriage, turns out to have already had something of an unofficial sequel in FORCE MAJEURE; call it SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE: Ski Resort Edition. (MAJEURE itself remade in English as DOWNHILL/’20.*) Here, the imperfect family unit (father/mother/daughter/son; all fit & handsome) see their alpine vacation interrupted on Day One by a ‘controlled’ avalanche that overshoots the mark, briefly blindsiding them at lunch. Panic, dash, confusion; Dad heading out-of-harm’s-way while Mom & the Kids huddle for protection. His spontaneous survival instinct exposing a fissure that will fester and possibly break them apart. But did this act of nature cause or merely reveal a crack in the relationship they’ve been habitually paving over for years? Writer/director Ruben Östlund plays with the fall-out (kids, friends old & new, eavesdroppers), building up to an awful breakdown, a bit too pleased with his idea and forcing issues to make points. He also seems intrigued by bleak comic possibilities in the situation, but can’t quite figure out how to drop them in without touching the third rail. (Not seen here, presumably the half-hour shorter Hollywood redo with Tina Fey & Will Ferrell tried this angle to skirt consequences.) Östlund needlessly lets everyone off the hook with a convenient snowblind catharsis for the family; then finds a richer open-ended payoff as satisfying as it is intriguing.
DOUBLE-BILL: *As mentioned, the poorly received Stateside remake, DOWNHILL. Write it up for our Comments section.
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