Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Force Majeure Blu-ray Movie Review

The Elephant in the Room

Reviewed by Michael Reuben February 10, 2015

Force majeure literally means "superior force", and the term most commonly occurs in a standard contract clause that excuses either party from its obligations in the event of war, strikes, riots or a so-called act of God such as a hurricane, earthquake or flood. In writer/director Ruben Östlund's 2014 film, which was Sweden's submission for the 2014 Oscars (but did not make the finalists), force majeure applies, at its most literal, to the avalanche that sweeps down on a family ski resort in the French Alps, terrifying onlookers but ultimately doing no harm. At a deeper level, however, the title's "superior force" refers to the primal instincts of survival that the impending disaster awakens in some of the hotel guests, with consequences that play out long after the tidal wave of snow has subsided.

Östlund works in a deliberate, slow-burn style that favors long takes, which he often holds to the point of discomfort. In his film review of Force Majeure, my colleague Brian Orndorf noted the influence of Stanley Kubrick, and Östlund's scrutiny of individuals under pressure also recalls Michael Haneke, another filmmaker who borrows from Kubrick. But Östlund doesn't share Haneke's didactic streak, which sometimes conveys the sense that a director is preaching to the viewer about humanity's corruption. Östlund's temperament is more humane, and he provides Force Majeure with a comic counterpoint in which he uses the ski resort's elaborate machinery for maintaining the slopes as a kind of slapstick intermission to relieve the tension between bouts of emotional turbulence. Ironically, that very machinery is what caused the avalanche that triggered the toxic emotional spiral.

Before proceeding, I want to stress that the following discussion reveals an early development in Force Majeure, one that is also disclosed in the film's trailer. While I do not regard this as a "spoiler", the definition of that term has become somewhat flexible. Readers who prefer to see Force Majeure with no foreknowledge beyond what is provided in the introduction should skip to the "Video" section.

Force Majeure focuses on a Swedish family of four, the father and mother, Tomas and Ebba (Johannes Bah Kuhnke and Lisa Loven Kongsli), and their two young children, Vera and Harry (real-life siblings Clara and Vincent Wettergren). They have come to this ski resort high in the French Alps for a five-day vacation, because, as Ebba tells another guest, Tomas has been working too hard and needs some family time. The guest, whose name is Charlotte (Karin Myrenberg), is there for the opposite reason: to get some "me" time away from her husband and children. Charlotte is one of several contrasting examples with which Östlund surrounds his central characters.

Just as the natural wonders of the mountain landscape are dotted with man-made structures built for skiers, the sounds of nature are routinely interrupted by the resort's activities, in particular the small explosions that dislodge snow accumulations before they become hazardous. On the second day of the family's stay, they are sitting on a terrace eating lunch when one of these "controlled" avalanches barrels into view. At first, the guests are enchanted by the sight, but then the wall of snow doesn't appear to be stopping. Panic ensues, and some of the guests run from the terrace. One of them is Tomas, abandoning Ebba and the children.

As it turns out, the threatening white cascade is merely snow "smoke": a dense fog of airborne crystals. Once the air clears, everything is fine, and Tomas returns to the table as if nothing has happened. In fact, though, everything has changed. Ebba is in shock, not from the avalanche itself, but from Tomas' actions, which contravenes every expectation she has of how a husband and father should behave when his family is endangered. (She herself tried to grab Vera and Harry but wasn't strong enough to lift both of them.) Confronted by Ebba, Tomas denies that he ran and says he and Ebba remember it differently—but he's clearly lying. So distraught is Ebba that she blurts out the story in social gatherings, first with Charlotte, then with their divorced friend Mats (Kristofer Hivju, Game of Thrones), who arrives with his twenty-year-old girlfriend, Fanny (Fanni Metelius) for what is supposed to be a weekend frolic that turns into an effort at marital counseling. The two children, sensing the sudden discord between their parents, become sullen and withdrawn.

One of Force Majeure's most painfully humorous scenes occurs when Mats attempts to rationalize Tomas' panicked flight as a rescue plan, as if anyone would have time to think during the confusion when the avalanche appeared to hit (all of it recorded on video by Tomas' phone). All Mats manages to accomplish is to chill the atmosphere between himself and Fanny, who is suddenly reminded that her boyfriend is also a husband and father, who happens to be with her instead of with his wife and kids. It doesn't take much imagination to see that their fling won't last beyond the ski trip.

Observing many of the uncomfortable moments between Tomas and Ebba is an impassive resort cleaner (Johannes Moustos), whose silent presence alternates between comic and creepy. He seems to be always nearby, but then again that's where hotel cleaners are supposed to be. Has he seen this kind of thing before? Does he have some wisdom to impart? Is he the representative of the Almighty's dispassionate gaze looking down upon yet another display of human weakness? Or is he just the bored employee who lets you into your room when your key card doesn't work?

As Östlund explains in the accompanying interview, he wanted to construct a story that would challenge the familiar image of men as heroes and protectors, an image that flourishes easily in an affluent society where it is almost never put to the test. In fact, Östlund says, sociological studies of ship sinkings and other disasters indicate that men's survival instinct frequently trumps their sense of duty. Force Majeure doesn't offer any explanations or easy answers to this dissonance between primal urges and social expectations, but it effectively dramatizes what happens when they clash. Östlund even finds an unusual way to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. As the ski trip draws to a close, the family is again confronted—more than once— with unexpected and potentially dangerous situations. Each time, the reactions of Tomas and Ebba are different than what we saw in the face of the avalanche, and Östlund is clearly asking the audience to consider, in each instance, exactly what happened—and why.

Force Majeure Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Östlund is one of Sweden's leading proponents of digital cinema and digital effects. He and his cinematographer, Fredrik Wenzel (The Quiet Roar), shot numerous tests before settling on the Arri Alexa with anamorphic lenses for capturing the scenic splendor of the Les Arcs ski resort, where most of Force Majeure was shot. Post-production, including the compositing of the avalanche (shot in British Colombia), was completed on a digital intermediate, from which Magnolia Home Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably derived.

The Blu-ray image is superb, with breathtaking long shots of the mountainous surroundings, the main resort, the various ski lifts and cable cars that skiers use to reach the peaks, and the plethora of both stationary and mobile devices used to maintain the surroundings. The scenes of skiers navigating the slopes have beautiful whites to show the snow, and the scenes of work crews refreshing and smoothing the trails at night have deep blacks for the background. The hotel rooms and other facilities are displayed with fine detail that gives the film a crucial realistic texture, making the people seem normal and believable. Because it is winter in the Alps, the color palette favors cool blues and grays, especially outside, but many of the hotel interiors have warmer hues from the wood decor.

Magnolia has placed Force Majeure on a BD-50 and, given the relatively slight extras, has used most of the available space to deliver an average bitrate of 36.00 Mbps (which is the exact reading delivered by BDInfo). I occasionally hear from Blu-ray.com forum members claiming that average bitrates this high do not make a visible difference with today's advanced codecs, but whenever I encounter a disc that allocates space this generously to the feature, the video quality is noticeably superior (assuming the source was good to begin with).

Force Majeure Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Force Majeure has a precisely edited 5.1 soundtrack, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA, in which the sounds of the ski resort's ceaseless manipulation of its snowy environment routinely interrupt the normal hum of daily life. Most noticeable are the small periodic explosions that trigger the controlled avalanches designed to prevent a much larger, uncontrolled event. The soundtrack reproduces these effects with authority but without overemphasizing them. For the avalanche at the heart of the story, a different sonic approach applies; it begins softly, then builds slowly in volume as the phenomenon approaches. Ultimately, both the sound and the avalanche disintegrate without ever "paying off" in the massive impact that everyone thinks is coming.

Sounds of wind, rushing air and ski lift machinery are deployed artfully throughout the surround array, as are small ambient noises from the resort's interior. The dialogue, which is occasionally in English but mostly in Swedish (with English subtitles), appears to be clear throughout. The original score is a mixture of original music by Ola Fløttum and an oft-repeated selection from Vivaldi's "Summer" concerto (an ironic touch).

Force Majeure Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Director Ruben Östlund and Actor Johannes Bah Kuhnke (1080i; 1.78:1; 16:43): The writer/director discusses the inspiration for the film, its themes and the production process. His star describes the challenges of playing Tomas, especially after a career devoted to playing likable characters; he jokes that he needed therapy at the end of many shooting days.



• AXS TV: A Look at Force Majeure (1080p; 2.39:1; 2:37): This typical AXS TV promo has been created by combining excerpts from the Östlund and Kuhnke interviews with the film's theatrical trailer.



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2.39:1; 1:58).



• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment: The disc includes trailers for The Two Faces of January, White Bird in a Blizzard, Pioneer and Life Itself, as well as promos for the Chideo web service and AXS TV. These also play at startup, where they can be skipped with the chapter forward button.



• BD-Live: As of this writing, attempting to access BD-Live gave the message "Check back for updates".

Force Majeure Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Force Majeure is unconventional in its approach and cerebral in its subject matter, but it gets inside your head and stays there, prompting uncomfortable questions that have occurred to all of us in one form or another. You cannot watch Tomas and Ebba trying to sort out their feelings without asking yourself, "What would I have done?", and you aren't answering honestly if you don't admit that you're not sure. That's the insoluble mystery at the heart of Östlund's film. One never knows until the moment arrives, and most of us will never know for sure, because it never does. Highly recommended.