SWEDEN – 2014 – 118 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN SWEDISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY RUBEN ÖSTLUND
A Swedish family travels to the French Alps to enjoy a few days of skiing and spend some precious time with each other. The sun is shining and the slopes are spectacular but, during a lunch at a mountainside restaurant, an avalanche turns everything upside down. With diners fleeing in all directions, mother Ebba calls for her husband Tomas as she tries to protect their children. Tomas, meanwhile, is running for his life...
Reality returns to embarrassed laughter, the anticipated disaster having failed to occur, and yet the family’s world has been shaken to its core. Tomas’ unexpected action leads them to evaluate their roles and assumptions, a question mark hanging over their father in particular. With the end of the holiday approaching, Tomas and Ebba’s marriage hangs in the balance as Tomas struggles desperately to reclaim his role as family patriarch.
FORCE MAJEURE is an observational comedy about the role of the male in modern family life.
Rating: 3.5/4 - “…brilliant…"
- TORONTO STAR (Review)
"There are those trying to position Gone Girl as the date-and-debate movie of the season, but it isn’t half the unsettling thriller FORCE MAJEURE is. "
"It is often deliciously, horrifically awkward…”
- THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Rating: 3.5/4 - “…a tricky, fascinating drama that gets a little too close for comfort when it comes to human frailty."
- THE TORONTO SUN
Rating: 8/10 - “With FORCE MAJEURE, Östlund has crafted his shrewdest observation to date."
- EXLCAIM!
Interview with Director Ruben Östlund
- THE NATIONAL POST
"Ruben Östlund’s devilishly clever festival hit…" - Rating: NNNN
- NOW MAGAZINE
Interview with Director Ruben Östlund
- NOW MAGAZINE
"Masculinity itself is at stake in Ruben Östlund’s wry, button-pushing FORCE MAJEURE, Sweden’s official Oscar submission.”
- TORONTOIST
“...a wry portrait of a shamed patriarch — a black comedy about a dissolving marriage on the (snowcapped) rocks.”
- VANCOUVER SUN
"A life-threatening event tears down a family's perception of patriarchal machismo in this entertaining absurdist tale.”
- 24NEWS.CA
Interview with Director Ruben Östlund
- WAY TOO INDIE
“...an excellent psychological drama that flips a family tree upside down.”
- CINEMA AXIS
"FORCE MAJEURE is the unembellished portrayal of a couple in crisis after an unexpected event rocks the foundations of their marriage.”
- DIGITAL JOURNAL
- THE SEVENTH ART (Video interview with director Ruben Östlund)
"FORCE MAJEURE is one of the best films to be released in Toronto this year…"
- THE WHOLENOTE MAGAZINE
(Interview with director Ruben Östlund)
- THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Rating: 4/4 - "The primary question: What do you think of Tomas? Secondary: What would you do? And the nagging tertiary: Are you sure?"
- THE NATIONAL POST
Rating: 4/4
- NEWSTALK 1010 (Radio)
"It’s strange, beautiful, heartbreaking and everything in between."
- THE TORONTO FILM SCENE
“...a major cinematic experience…”
“...one of the best movies of the year…"
- DORKSHELF
“…fascinating..."
- DORKSHELF (Interview)
“...‘Haneke-esque’..."
- GROLSCHE FILM WORKS (Interview)
"FORCE MAJEURE mixes the banal with the spectacular to create a provocative psychological thriller about the male ego…"
- RICHARDCROUSE.CA
“...FORCE MAJEURE will provoke an instinctual and visceral reaction from its audience…"
- SCENE CREEK
Interview with Ruben Östlund
- CBC Radio Q (Interview with director Ruben Östlund)
"FORCE MAJEURE is — deservedly — Sweden’s pick for the Academy Awards and it’s likely to make it to the final five.”
- PLANET S MAGAZINE
FORCE MAJEUERE make the Globe and Mail’s “top 5 docs” for 2014 list!
- THE GLOBE AND MAIL
“...a clear-eyed and therefore wickedly satirical look at modern modes of masculinity.”
- THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT
"...a thoughtful psychodrama about family and gender roles, the role of the modern patriarch in particular."
- THE NORTH SHORE NEWS
“Don’t Miss The Dark Comedy FORCE MAJEURE”
- THE SNIPE NEWS