Does anyone know film’s ending?
Ski holiday starts out well in Force Majeure, then things go quickly downhill.
REVIEW — Does anyone know the ending to the acclaimed Swedish film Force Majeure? No one who attended the Kamloops Film Society showing of this award-winning comedy/drama tonight (Thursday) does.
That’s because, once again, technology failed the film society; five minutes before the end of Force Majeure, the video crapped out. After a couple of failed attempts to get it going again, the technician gave up. By then, half the audience had already left for home, anyway.
It’s a sad situation for the film society. At a recent showing of another brilliant Swedish film, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Jumped Out of The Window and Disappeared, the subtitles failed to materialize and the audience had to sit through two hours of guessing what was being said.
If this keeps up, film society audiences are going to dwindle quickly.
https://twitter.com/kamloopsfilm/status/555995846886436864
Which is a shame, because it’s showing some great movies. Force Majeure is about a seemingly happy family taking a ski vacation in the Alps. But when an avalanche comes roaring down toward the resort, the dad, played by Johannes Kuhnke as Tomas, pauses only long enough to grab his gloves and his iPhone before high-tailing it, leaving his wife (Ebba, played by Lisa Loven Kongsli) and their two kids to fend for themselves.
Everybody comes through it just fine, as it turns out, but Tomas can’t bring himself to admit his cowardice, and Ebba can’t bring herself either to forgive him or to leave it alone. She keeps telling people what happened, and both of them become more and more miserable.
There’s much more drama than comedy in this film, but the laugh lines are subtle and cutting, providing just enough relief for the audience to catch up to the unfolding dilemma and the obvious question: “What would you have done in the same situation?”
Force Majeure is stylishly photographed, as many Scandinavian films are, marked by long scenes in which nothing much happens and nothing at all is said — people walking, people sitting, and so on — alternating with very long conversations in which people say far too much. However, it’s nothing a little editing couldn’t fix, and at least director Ruben Ostlund doesn’t find it necessary to background every scene with pop music.
Force Majeure was nominated for a Golden Globe, won several major film-festival awards, and was considered a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination. The latter didn’t happen, cut off at the pass much the same way the ending was at the film society’s showing in the Paramount.
At least it had subtitles, but if anyone does know how it ends, I for one would like to know.
— Mel Rothenburger
https://twitter.com/kamloopsfilm/status/556127117876809729
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Clever report Mel! Thanks. And thanks for the AM News, Without a go-to daily newspaper in this town (the largest city in Canada without), I sincerely appreciate all that you do as the one-man newsroom … and thank a few you columnists as well.
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Oh, Mel. So disappointing. A “shoe-in for an Oscar”? Was footwear central to the film? Nevertheless, yours is a shoo-in for my favorite Kamloops news site.
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I will argue that shoo-in and shoe-in are both correct, the latter by common usage if nothing else. Answers.com says, “as a noun, the slang word for a sure thing or favorite is usually hyphenated as shoe-in.” But thanks for the vote as a shoo-in — I’ll take it either way.
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Hi Mel – you’ve probably heard by now but the film re-started, and there was about 30 seconds more of the group walking down the hill. Then the film ended with the credits. Everyone laughed because nothing was missed with the aborted ending. Blessings, Dawne Taylor
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The film was reloaded, a few remaining audience members had a good laugh as the folks in the last scene walked another meter down the road. That was the end! For those that left a bit early, the only thing missed was the credits……
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A bunch of people DO know, because they took those extra few minutes to mull around whether out of patience, curiosity, necessity, or sheer luck. The society got the film back on minutes later and many people sat down. While you’ll be glad to know you didn’t miss anything plot wise, perhaps this will serve as a reminder to you & the others to be more patient. After all, the KFS is presenting great movies and we are so lucky to have them in our city. The movie ended about 15 seconds later with a few extra confident footsteps. You missed nothing except for the Kamloops audience cheering and roaring with laughter at the non-climactic ending that we all sat down for. It was a hilarious and fitting way for the film to end: with a digital blackout, avalanche of confusion, and force majeure. The film asks how do we react in those situations. Those of us who stayed demonstrated patience, appreciation and grace under pressure. Where were you?
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We, and those around us, figured it must be the end of the film. “Maybe that’s the way they do it in Europe,”? said one confused member of the audience. It was only on the way home when friends called to say they were still trying to get it running again that I realized there was more to come.
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