Unpleasant is the only word that comes to mind. This film was unpleasant. Very unpleasant. I recall watching Ishtar, noting afterwards that not a single moment in the film made me want to see the ensuing moment. With the exception of the avalanche, that, too, was true of Downhill, a film that made me question how you go downhill when you’re already at a nadir.
Six years ago, Swedish director Ruben Östlund made a film called Force Majeure, all well-respected exploration of a marriage suddenly driven to the brink during what should have been an innocuous ski holiday. I want to point out right now that I didn’t care a great deal for Force Majeure; the film’s pacing was deliberately awkward to match the passive-aggression between the couple. Downhill is the American remake of Force Majeure, cleverly removing the subtlety, acting, and point of the original. Whatever negatives I imagined were endemic to Force Majeure, Downhill was worse. A lot worse.
Pete (Will Ferrell) has taken his wife Billie (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and their two medium-sized children on a ski vacation in the Austrian Alps. On day 2, a controlled avalanche swamps their outdoor lunch. As the snow approaches, it sure looks like all the outdoor restaurant patrons are in a heap o’ trouble. Pete abandons the picnic table, leaving Billie to umbrella the children not unlike a mother goose. When the wall of white lifts, it turns out only a sprinkling of snow stuck. Most of the intimidation was air, not mass.
It’s not like Downhill was ready to collect awards up to this moment, but after the avalanche, the film really went, dare I say? Downhill. It stunk. JLD decides that her personal being will be stuck on “sour” for the rest of the film which, while awful, beats Will Ferrell’s decision not to find any state of being. Wandering aimlessly between “kinda confused” and “kinda embarrassed,” Will behaved as a husband who doesn’t know his wife, a father who doesn’t know his children, and an actor who doesn’t know his trade. Geez, Will, at least be funny. You can do that, right? Apparently, only when John C. Reilly shows up. JCR, however, was nowhere to be found on the slopes.
While the original focused on the growing rift between the couple with children and friends as collateral damage, Downhill put Billie at odds with Pete almost instantly. Where Force Majeure questioned whether the couple should still be a couple, Downhill left no doubt. They shouldn’t. They don’t even seem like a couple. They don’t even seem like parents. Downhill took the Tyler Perry view of children in that youngsters should be treated as props or identity appendages and nothing more. Did the Downhill kids have names? Personalities? Who cares. And I daresay, at least in a standard Tyler Perry film, there is rarely a good reason for a child to be present. I mean, no child would voluntarily get within 50 yards of any Tyler Perry character. In Downhill, however, they’re in the same room as ugly parents. Constantly. They can’t be anywhere else.
I’m used to Will Ferrell taking a bit to 11. Live or die, funny or not, the man commits to comedy. No single bit in this film was taken beyond, say, a 3. You want to know why comic actors generally don’t get the same respect as dramatic actors? This. This is the reason. Given the opportunity to portray genuine emotion on screen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus managed little more than contempt while Will Ferrell came up with a goose egg. And I’ve seen Will Ferrell effective as a dramatic actor (Everything Must Go). I guess everything went.
Downhill differed from Force Majeure in several ways and made the worse choice 95% of the time. This is a classic arms folded movie. “I’m not happy. I’m not entertained. I’m not amused. I DARE you to change my posture. I freaking dare you.” It did not. This is a bad film with weak characters, no humor, and no point. I call it easily among the worst of 2020 and we’re only in mid-February.
Pete proved a despicable quitter
His explanation lacked truthful glitter
And Billie, no frills
In the Austrian hills
Found the difference between “bitte” and bitter
Rated R, 86 Minutes
Director: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
Writer: Jesse Armstrong and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
Genre: “Comedy”
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Very, very spiteful people
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Anybody who has ever seen a movie
