Avalanche of awkwardness

THE poster may be misleading. The sight ofWill Ferrell in salopettes promises a riot of pratfalls and zingy one-liners; a ski-themed follow-up to his ice skating comedy Blades Of Glory.

But Downhill, a worthwhile remake of Swedish art house hit Force Majeure, gives the comic a chance to try something different.

Ferrell and a brilliant Julia Louis-Dreyfus play Pete and Billie, a wealthy couple on a skiing holiday in the Austrian Alps with their two sons.

Pete lost his father eight months ago and has emerged from the grieving process with a mantra: “Every day is all we have”. So he refused to book the family into a child-friendly resort and Billie’s strained smile speaks volumes.

She’ll cut him some slack for now but she’s almost at the end of her tether.

The tension comes to a head after a scary incident in a cafe. To clear heavy snowfall from the slopes, the resort has engineered a controlled avalanche. But the family watch with rising terror from the balcony as snow cascades towards them.

When it smashes into the balcony, Billie protects her boys while Pete, who isn’t stuck between the table and a wall, scarpers. Is this cowardice or instinct? Can we even make moral decisions in life-or-death moments?

Downhill doesn’t look for easy answers. Nobody is hurt but Pete won’t acknowledge his disappearing act. He needs to see himself as a good husband and father but his wife and kids are looking at him differently.

Downhill can be an uncomfortable watch but directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Way Way Back) cut the tension with sharp lines and physical comedy.

Ferrell keeps us rooting for Pete while Louis-Dreyfus, also credited as producer, expertly slaloms between comedy and drama. There are funny moments but most of them are intentionally uncomfortable.