Downhill
Published May 7, 2020
Film info
- Title Downhill
- Directors Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
- Year 2020
- Run time 1hr 27m
- Genres Drama, Comedy
- Tagline A different kind of disaster movie
Barely escaping an avalanche during a family ski vacation in the Alps, a married couple is thrown into disarray as they are forced to reevaluate their lives and how they feel about each other. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell star in this biting comedy.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 0:20 | Just Searchlight, no more Fox! |
| 2:15 | “He wants us to keep doing poles up, I don’t know.” |
| 7:47 | Yep, room service can be dangerous. |
| 10:37 | I would get so lost in all the routes and colours and things. |
| 16:00 | The back to back sink-age is excellent. |
| 19:31 | Why is he belittling the experience though? He ran. |
| 22:48 | “There was an avalanche that caused alarm.” Alarm is one word for it. |
| 25:22 | The boarding of the ski-lifts is a bit of a cattle market, I don’t like. |
| 30:58 | Somehow I’m on both their sides. Get on the helicopter, but also tantrum! |
| 33:37 | “Do I sound like a narc?” |
| 35:49 | Julia’s facial expressions are incredible. |
| 40:24 | “Because mine is true and not dumb.” |
| 41:57 | She showing off her attorney skills there, bringing her kids to the stand. |
| 49:33 | Alpine coffee. Way better than descent. |
| 55:55 | “Promise me you won’t find it silly if someone makes it about you.” |
| 1:00:05 | It’s somehow funny but also sad. |
| 1:00:32 | “We’re in a stock image right now.” |
| 1:06:30 | I always feel like it’s black and white too, but I think if you’re in it, it isn’t. |
| 1:08:14 | “We should get you out of here, it’s almost 7.” |
| 1:14:24 | The kid is not wrong. |
| 1:18:12 | I don’t believe him when he says it. She wins this movie. |
Thoughts
We’ve sat through a couple of bad films recently and I was hoping this would break the run - it certainly was entertaining but I don’t know that it was a particularly good movie. I didn’t realise until reading some reviews afterwards that it’s basically a shot-for-shot remake of another movie, one with shock-horror subtitles, which is a tricky one to wrestle with. If they hadn’t made this, I probably would never have heard of Force Majeure, but equally, is there a reason for this to exist when that already does? I don’t know.
I think Julia Louis-Dreyfus carries this film incredibly well, she’s got exactly the right mix of frustration, sadness, desperation, but loyalty and her facial expressions are on point. Will Ferrell seems completely out of place in this movie, totally mis-cast. The dark comedy doesn’t really come out of him well in this, and he plays a very wooden character so that it’s hard to see the motivation and thus hard for JLD to have anything to bounce off of.
There are some laughs in there, and it’s an interesting idea, but ultimately it’s a one-sided film that should be a great double-hander.
Rating: 2 / 5