‘DOWNHILL’ A SHOWCASE FOR LOUIS-DREYFUS, FERRELL
The foreign-language film remake has never been the most esteemed sort of Hollywood production, but the timing of “Downhill,” a remake of Ruben Östlund’s 2014 Swedish film “Force Majeure,” hasn’t done it any favors.
“Downhill” skies into theater just days after the historic Oscar victory for Bong Joon-ho’s South Korean thriller “Parasite” which, for a moment anyway, smashed what Bong called “the one-inch barrier of subtitles.”
And yet, the notion of pure “originality” doesn’t really wash for the movies, the most ravenous and protean of art forms. Hollywood has always hunted high and low for good source material, affixing itself to all manner of books, plays, toy lines and classic films like—you might say—a parasite.
Sometimes, the results are cynical, sometimes they’re grand. Easy as it may be to turn one’s nose up at foreign-language film remakes, that also means shunning, for example, the delights of “The Birdcage” and possibly the greatest comedy of all time, “Some Like it Hot.”
Both of those movies point to what can make such remakes not only work but come alive: insanely good comic performers and brilliant writers.
And if you’re going to Americanize a European film, you can’t do much better than put
Julia Louis-dreyfus and Will Ferrell in it. “Downhill,” too, comes with talented comedy minds behind the camera in directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, who cowrote the adaptation with Jesse Armstrong, the mind behind HBO’S “Succession.”
“Downhill” takes the basic shape of Östlund’s film. A family of four are in the Alps for a ski vacation when an intentionally set off avalanche begins tumbling down the mountain.
The family appreciates the sight from the deck of a ski lodge before panic sets in. The husband, Pete (Ferrell), grabs his phone and runs away while the wife, Billie (Louis-dreyfus), desperately clutches their two sons.
After the avalanche, Billie is increasingly apoplectic, furious at her husband’s cowardice and uncertain about their marriage’s future. Pete at first refuses to admit anything happened, a denial that crumbles in a withering scene in front of a visiting couple (Zach Woods, Zoë Chao).
It would be easy to say “Downhill” lacks the nuance of “Force Majeure,” but Östlund’s film wasn’t perfect, either. Like his “The Square,” it makes cutting but imprecise stabs at irony and satire, and never quite lives up to its spectacular beginning. It’s the better film, sure, but the pleasures of watching Ferrell and, in particular, Louis-dreyfus in “Downhill” shouldn’t be minimized.
Ferrell’s presence slightly shifts the film’s dynamics. Still, it’s kind of a perfect role for Ferrell, who trades his comedy persona for his seldom seen dramatic skill. He and Louis-dreyfus are terrific together, and “Downhill” is sustained by their chemistry.
From “Seinfeld” to “Veep,” Louis-dreyfus’ greatness lies in her ability to savagely skewer the ridiculousness of the men around her, while simultaneously lampooning herself.