Genre Guesstimation – Force Majeure (2014)

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

This month’s Genre has been chosen by Jordan of Epileptic Moondancer.  He has chosen a genre that is well out of my own comfort zone but I am up for the challenge.  We will be reviewing our favorite Foreign Language Films From 2013-Present.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of July by sending them to foreignjordan@movierob.net  Try to think out of the box! Great choice Jordan!

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of Foreign Language Films (2013-Present) …

“There’s nothing in your head that you haven’t said! “- Fanni

Number of Times Seen – 1 (11 Jul 2016)

Brief Synopsis – A family on vacation at a ski resort have their lives turned upside down when they witness an avalanche.

My Take on it – As many of you already know, I’m not the biggest fan of Foreign language films but it mainly has to do with the fact that I rely highly on my sense of hearing for movies and when I don’t understand the language, having to watch what is going on AND having to read subtitles in order to understand makes this a bit harder for me to completely enjoy and fully experience the movie.

That being said, when Jordan chose this as this month’s Genre, I knew that I would need to watch films outside of my comfort zone, but have made peace with that fact a while back.

This is actually a movie that I heard about a few years back and din’t know much about it besides the fact that it is a Swedish film that takes place at a ski resort when an avalanche hits.

I was expecting a film like The Impossible (2012) and was looking forward to an action/adventure film.

What I got was something completely different.

This is a drama that deals with the aftereffects of an avalanche on a family on vacation.

The way they portray the family dynamics works extremely well and it is quite easy to believe that they are a real family; there were even scenes where I could easily replace the characters with my own family members.

The script is very good and keeps things interesting because they raise numerous issues and debate them among the characters in an emotionally charged yet realistic fashion.

The themes discussed here leave the viewer with much to think about and/or discuss for days afterwards because they are so powerful.

Unfortunately, as I stated earlier, I felt that as much as I enjoyed this film, something was missing due to the fact that I had to concentrate too much on the subtitles.

Bottom Line – Nothing like what I expected.  The family dynamics are portrayed so well here that with some of the scenes I could easily imagine happening between me, my wife and kids. The themes debated here are quite interesting and Superbly written and discussed in an emotionally charged way like it should. Gives the viewer a lot to think about for days afterwards. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Official submission of Sweden to the best foreign language film category of the 87th Academy Awards 2015. Made the shortlist of 9 films. (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Nope. This was quite good but still wasn’t good enough to be counted among my favorites to be rewatched over and over.

Rating – Globe Worthy

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