Parents' Guide to Force Majeure

Written and directed by Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, this is a deft black comedy with moments of raw drama. Force Majeure's plot, which follows how a husband-and-wife dispute interferes with a family holiday, would likely play well in any language. In fact, it had a U.S. remake in the form of Downhill, in 2020, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell. But it's Östlund's original version that has won the most plaudits. High up on a French mountain, a luxury ski resort slowly turns into purgatory for Kuhnke's Tomas, whose wife Ebba (Kongsli) becomes increasingly upset after Tomas appears to try to save himself from an avalanche rather than attempting to save his family.

Tomas and Ebba's unease around each other in the days that follow is drip-fed into a well-observed script by Östlund, who lets their plight lightly brush off on the couples who share their space. This includes Game of Thrones alumnus Kristofer Hivju, who joins them as their avuncular friend, Mats, and struggles to escape the blast radius of it all. Characters are slowly left to give in to their insecurities as the limits of social niceties are exposed. This is a tale of the worries of aging, fitting in, growing up and (trying to) protect the ones you love. As Östlund has shown with his subsequent movies, The Square and The Triangle of Sadness, he has a gift for humanizing people who do things they shouldn't and making us care about them.