Downhill

Year 13, Day 199 - 7/18/21 - Movie #3,896

BEFORE: This is going to sound a bit weird, but we spent part of yesterday visiting the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in downtown Manhattan.  I've had a couple days off from the movie theater, and I asked my wife if she wanted to do anything on the weekend day I was free, and she opted for the museum visit.  Well, we are approaching the 20th anniversary of that disaster, and there's a chance that the museum traffic will go up this September, so we figured we'd go on a July weekend, when more people would be likely to visit the beach or an amusement park or something.  Perhaps this was seasonally inappropriate, but it was done with good intention.  

The museum is a bit of an oddity, because it's a combination of a tragedy plus patriotism with a gift shop at the end, of course.  After going there and being forced to relive the trauma of 9/11 at every turn, we started to wonder why anyone would go there to relive the trauma of 9/11 if they didn't have to. I got the same sort of feeling I did when we visited Dallas, and I wanted to see the book depository and the grassy knoll and the place where JFK was killed.  It was interesting for a while, and then once we were down on the street and saw the marking on the street that denotes, you know, the exact spot, it all became too real and I got that weird sinking feeling.  That happened again today when we realized we were in a building inside what used to be "the pit" and they had preserved some of the original building columns in their original place, and the walls of the pit, and suddenly it all became too real.  The displays are designed to recreate the trauma of the original day, but now I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.  Certainly there must be more constructive and fun museums to visit, and yes, I realize that's not the point, but still.

Speaking of seasonally inappropriate, tonight's film is a skiing-based film, right in the middle of summer.  Sure, there are Olympics coming up next week, but they're the Summer Games, delayed from last year.  Maybe watching a film with a lot of snow in it will help me deal with the heat?  I don't know, but Will Ferrell carries over from "Zeroville".  It's difficult to recall why I didn't watch this film last year - I think it was part of the plan, perhaps between "Eurovision Song Contest" and "Drunk Parents", did I cut it because I was one film over my limit, or was I trying to save it for winter so it would feel more seasonally appropriate?  I recorded it on my DVR in early December, so maybe it wasn't available to me when I watched those other Will Ferrell films.  Maybe later tonight I'll listen to some Christmas music...

THE PLOT: 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. 

AFTER: Ah, I get the double meaning now - this married couple is in a relationship that may be "headed downhill", as the saying goes.  But doesn't everything head downhill, automatically?  Not to be too depressing about things, but doesn't entropy demand that everything has a shelf-life, we're all circling the drain, and ultimately everything gets worse instead of better.  Right?  That's all implied, I shouldn't even have to bring it up - like saying "downhill skiing", it's unnecessary, because all skiing is downhill, you can't ski uphill.  Well, I suppose there's cross-country skiing, so maybe you do have to say "downhill" - but you don't need to say "local restaurant", because all restaurants are local to somewhere, so you can just say "restaurant", OK?  

The trouble started months ago, when Pete's father passed away, and he was a travel agent who for decades never traveled anywhere himself, which reminds me of Jimmy Stewart's character in "It's a Wonderful Life", who had all kinds of travel plans but never left Bedford Falls.  Life's too short, man, you've got to get out there and see parts of the world before it's too late, and that's what prompted Pete and his wife Billie to take their two sons to the Austrian Alps - or maybe it was Will Ferrell who wanted to take his family there, and making a movie was a great excuse to do that.  I think his wife is from Sweden, right?  So maybe he's really into skiing and winter stuff.  

Anyway, according to the movie the authorities create these small controlled avalanches at certain times, to prevent a larger one from taking place naturally, which would be more dangerous.  Our American family here is unprepared for this, despite the numerous warning signs posted around the resort - so they're on the outside deck of the restaurant when it takes place, and Billie reacts by protecting her sons with her body, but Pete grabs his cell phone and takes off, which doesn't exactly win him any points with his family.  The rest of the film is basically a hashing-out of the relationship in light of this occurrence, the couple needs to re-connect and perhaps some new ground rules need to be established with regards to emergency procedures, and also how protective the couple is going to be of their teenage sons in the future.  Generally speaking, Billie is the "helicopter mom" and Pete is the "hands off" dad, but maybe this needs to change, or a middle ground needs to be established.  

I don't have kids, but I get that neither extreme is probably ideal, you need to watch after your kids but also allow them to develop as individuals, and that means they may need to take some risks once in a while to learn and grow, and they may get hurt once in a while.  The important thing is to keep them alive while also allowing them to try new things and have fun, and that doesn't sound easy - way too much work for me.  Better to just not have kids in the first place, but I know, somebody's got to keep the species going, just maybe let's slow it down a bit for a while, until we can get this climate change thing figured out, that's all I ask.  Yes, I'm childless for the sake of the planet, let's go with that. 

The couple then tries changing roles a little bit, Billie has a solo day on the mountain where she flirts with a handsome Italian ski instructor, and Pete takes the kids on an alpine sled ride (Jesus, didn't he see "Action Park", doesn't he know how dangerous those things are?) and realizes that he doesn't have all the answers either, that his way of dealing with the kids may not be the best way, and what do you know, they all maybe find a new middle ground they can work with.  I approve of the sort of switcheroo used here, Billie is put into what we might normally consider "male" situations (considering infidelity, and the scene in the bathroom) while Pete is thrust into the traditionally "female" role (taking the kids on an outing) in order for them to walk a mile in the other's shoes and come to a new understanding.  OK, so it's hardly "King Lear", but at least the plot points and turn-arounds are properly motivated. 

This film was based on a Swedish film called "Force Majeure", which in turn was inspired by an episode of "Seinfeld", in which George Costanza pushed an old woman out of the way when there was a small fire at a child's birthday party.  Appearing in that episode, of course, was Julia Louis-Dreyfus, so it kind of feels like we've seen this idea come around full circle, right?  One knock, though, is that based on the cast most people would approach this film expecting a comedy, and it's quite unclear if it actually is one.  I guess it has comic elements to it, but first and foremost it plays out like a family drama/relationship film.  Had I known that, I might have scheduled it somewhere else - but whatever.  It was released on Valentine's Day last year, which was prior to all theaters getting shut down - still, I think the message may be an important one post-pandemic, as things slowly return to normal, most parents have to re-assess the risks associated with letting their kids return to school, travel, and participate in activities, and maybe there are relationships and work schedules among the adults that need to be re-assessed as well. 

I'm working tonight, after two and a half days off, and then both jobs on Monday, and another night shift on Tuesday.  Plus there's a job interview in there somewhere, too - so I may not get to four movies this week, we'll have to see.  But I'll be back here again after watching a movie on Wednesday, I guess.  I won't get to Movie #3,900 until next weekend at this rate...

Also starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus (last heard in "Onward"), Miranda Otto, Zoe Chao (last seen in "Where'd You Go, Bernadette"), Zach Woods (last heard in "The Angry Birds Movie 2"), Kristofer Hivju (last seen in "The Thing" (2011)), Alex Macqueen (last seen in "All Is True"), Julian Grey, Ammon Jacob Ford, Giulio Berruti with archive footage of David Hasselhoff (last seen in "The New Guy")

RATING: 4 out of 10 co-worker's Instagram photos