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Wow! Such a good movie.

the audience applauded

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Force Majeure (Swedish: Turist) (2014) This was a film about snow, families, marriages. Mostly, though, about the survival instinct. A Swiss family takes a vacation in the French Alps. A workaholic father, an attentive and loving mother, a son and a daughter, brother and younger sister. Tomas, Ebba, Vera, Harry. Plus Ebba's girlfriend, who seems to relish a polygamous lifestyle, Charlotte. Mats, an old friend of Tomas's, and his young twenty year old lover, Fanny. Day One. Family together, skis, uneventful. Ends with Vivaldi. Day Two. Family skis in the morning. Lunch, it becomes Avalanche Day. When Tomas grabs his belongings, runs from the scene. Escaping the avalanche, which fortunately never makes impact. Away from his wife. Away from his children. Away from his son calling, "Daddy!". Ebba looks around; she has never experienced anything like this in her life; she is scared; she clutches her children, looking for her husband. Vanished. Laughing, he returns to the table a few minutes later, as if nothing were wrong in the world. That night, dinner with Charlotte and her current man. Tomas insists he did no such thing, he would never run away, of course not. Ebba, plainly shocked into speechlessness. More sharp Vivaldi Concerto No. 2 chords. Day Three. Ebba wants an alone day. She returns to have dinner with Tomas' friends, finally admitting out loud how depressed she is that Tomas denies fleeing from get and the kids. Expressed how afraid she was. Tomas says nothing, even after they watch the video he filmed, clearly showing him running away. Discussion regarding survival instincts. Fanni tells Mats that she feels he would probably react as Tomas had because of his personality. He understandable takes offense and things are different between them after that. Vivaldi. Day Four. Guys day. Mats & Tomas are skiing alone. Mats convinces Tomas to try scream therapy. Tomas feels better. He returns to the hotel but cannot find Ebba. He goes back out and finds himself at a rave party. Non Vivaldi screaming music with sharp chords. Screams more. Pivotal scene. Outside their room, as they're children eavesdrop and hug each other in consolation, Thomas cries out that he hates that bad part of him, that he also suffers. Hates his cowardice. Here cheated in games with the children. Confesses to cheating in past. Final Day. Very foggy day. Ebba is lost in the snow. Tomas tells the children to stay where they are, leaves them to search for his wife. Follows her voice, successfully carries her back to reunite his family. Film ends with another scene showing how we react in survival situations. A bus ride down a winding mountain with sharp turns and driver is obviously not very skilled. Ebba panics, demands to be let out. Overreacting? The bus full of tourists is panicking, screaming, rushing out. Mats very firmly tells everyone to leave in a logical manner, women and children first, otherwise people will get hurt. Success. Charlotte (who previously stated she loved risks) remains in the bus along with a handful of others. Would the purpose of this scene be to show that Ebba can also overreact in what she deems to be a survival instincts situation? Still, she stays with her children by her side. They walk down the mountain. Close curtain. Three things. From a psychological standpoint, I liked this film, its exploration of what we do in a fight or flee survival situation, its refusal to take a side. Secondly, I personally do not feel that Tomas redeemed himself by saving Ebba on the last day of their vacation. Though since Ebba does not seem to want a divorce, I can see why she convinced herself that he did. Thirdly, weird music, sharp Vivaldi that serves as an interlude between days, maybe as foreshadowing to danger, was not to my liking. Other scenes of whiteness and snow and emptiness played well into overall message in film. For this film, the typical Scandinavian somber tone is apposite. Great camera work, Simple premise plays out well. Gives much to ponder. Haibun, "haikai writings", is a prosimetric (written partly in prose and partly in verse) poem in which a haiku is included after the prose, serving as its climax or epiphany. #Haibun #PoemReview

In a society that is in constant change, sometimes it is difficult to know where your place is. And nowadays this feels harder than ever, with social networks, smartphones and constant connection to every corner of the world. So many things are happening that sometimes people are not sure about their position in society or family, or even what they are supposed to be and do. And this adjusting may be in particular hard for the ones that have been more privileged and have had more power. Not because they have lost privileges, but because they feel they are losing their position in the world, their prerogatives and rights. And it is hard for them to accept that.And that is what "Force Majeure" is about. A perfect family of four are having dinner in a restaurant when an avalanche happens. At first they take it as a thing to take pictures of and enjoy, a controlled avalanche. However little by little the avalanche comes closer to the restaurant... and the man decides to run for his life leaving his two children and wife behind.From that moment on we have a really engaging look on family, relationships, women and men's position on society and how difficult it is to the privileged to accept changes or their loss of power. By looking at a family, Östlund develops all these ideas in a subtle but never superficial way. The pace is slow and takes its time, but it never lets the viewer down and it adds little by little to the story. Some imaginary is too heavy-handed (like the toilet moments in particular), but in general the direction is spot on and all the moments have relevance to what is happening, with some touches of humor to stop the story to becoming too dark and broody."Force Majeure" is a really interesting movie.

How far can we trust each other in marriage? What kind of trust do we accept, or place? What happens when trust is put in jeopardy? Can you trust your life to your wife (or husband)? How do you know - truly know - either way? If trust is gone, what happens to any marriage ... or any relationship?What would you, I, anybody do when we lose the trust of our partner? Or vice-versa?Implicitly and explicitly, this story uses those issues as its thematic thrust, initiated by a seemingly close encounter - by a typical tourist family at a ski resort - with a controlled, snow-laden avalanche which, for a few terrifying seconds, comes too close to the restaurant setting where the family is having breakfast on the terrace. As the fog of snow and ice enveloped the family (along with other tourists), panic followed, immediately: the father, Tom (Kuhnke) grabbed his cell-phone etc to flee into the hotel, leaving his wife, Ebba (Kongsli) desperately clinging to and covering the daughter and son, Vera and Harry (both Wettergren), and screaming to Tom to come back to help. Blurred vision and screaming sound fade to ... white silence (as the snow fog thickens, but gradually dissipates as we watch).That's the heart-thumping action, all in two minutes or so. The rest of the story centers upon Tom and Ebba, mainly, as they warily discuss what happened, what each did, and why. Naturally, each holds a different story in their heads, a different perspective about what really went down - thus providing a number of opportunities for a goodly number of highly emotive exchanges. However, on the final day of their stay, after much personal to-and-fro angst, Tom unexpectedly proves his worth - or did he? - on their final downhill ski run, with Ebba and the children, during a white-out.A happy ending, or so we think as we watch them, next morning, boarding a bus to begin the homeward journey. It's here, however, that the screenwriter/director provides a third perspective - an all inclusive one, you could say - which balances the scales between Tom and Ebba, conclusively and categorically. It's an innovative end to this story - one which, I understand, caused some dissatisfaction for many viewers - but not the end of the issue. That's something we all have to live with, every day of our relationships.The acting is adequate if not Academy Award level; direction is competent; dialogue is realistic and appropriate; and the resort scenery, beautifully captured, is merely a prop. At two hours, it probably seemed too long for some, yet it held my interest without flagging because it's a story which demonstrates how trust is so hard to earn, so easy to lose, and almost impossible to win back.Recommended for all, including adolescents. Eight out of ten. July 24, 2017Copyright © 2017, Roger J. Burke. All rights reserved

For me, the main theme of the movie is owning up to yourself.I think the film is at its best when Tomas is confronted with is actions, first when Tomas and Ebba takes a beer with another couple, and then after the dinner with Tomas' friend and his girlfriend.Off course, Ebba has a problem with Tomas leaving them during the avalanche, but I think the problem grows much bigger when Tomas denies it. The moments of denial are brilliantly played, in my opinion.I think the discussion between Tomas' friend and his girlfriend afterwards also is interesting. But here, I think the roles are switched. Because the girlfriend first comes with accusations, and then, when he wants to discuss them, she backs away and just tell him to forget it. If the accusations are legitimate or not is not possible to know for us. But it is clear that they need to be resolved in one way or another. And they are not. Just as Tomas' and Ebbas situation is not resolved until Tomas' breakdown.The situations where the film is most confusing to me are the "accident" of Ebba in the mountains, and the scene in the bus at the end. They seem a bit out of character for her, and they also seem constructed and not entirely believable. They make me question whether the main concern for Ebba is her children, or her husband taking care of her. It is totally irresponsible for Tomas to leave his children in the middle of the slope searching for Ebba. It is also strange that Ebba in the bus, suddenly is not concerned for her children anymore.I like how the film contrasts the dramatic event with our protected lives. If we always live in our safe bubbles, there are sides of ourselves and of our close ones, that we are never confronted with.