Moving Narrative 2: Force Majeure

(This is simply a bunch of notes on my impression of the film.)

I felt the sense of "the role of the man" was strong throughout the film. The mechanics of the family were also felt, but I personally felt masculine identity was the most analysed throughout the movie.

Traditionally, the man is viewed as the provider, the protecter of his family. This is something that is still subconsciously felt amongst most men today. Now it manifests more in a sense of being "strong" and macho. So in the opening act of the film when the father flees from oncoming danger and leaves his family behind, it becomes nearly impossible for him to accept. The simple idealism of his role in the family is shattered to pieces, and so he creates a new reality inside his own mind in order to patch up his mistakes. He tries to justify his actions and twist so they seem like he really was protecting them, but eventually it becomes impossible for him to deny anymore and he finally breaks down. He breaks down because in his own eyes he is not a man: he is a failure. This disrupts the family too, as their view of their father is shattered as well. There is a growing rift between the father, the mother and the children as their own fears and frustrations continue to grow.

The film is beautifully shot. The director and cinematographer are able to utilise the mountains to create this sense of isolation even when the family is all together. There are shots, like near the end of the film when the family ski into the fog, that are able to separate all of them, helping to demonstrate this fractured state. Their alone in their own worlds as they try to deal with the problem at hand. The father finds solace with his friend, but it is more because his friend is supporting his warped distortion of events. The mother has little to no one to talk to, so she recedes into herself, and the children are nothing more than spectators to the whole thing. Or rather, that is what I fist thought.

At one point as the father breaks down, he even admits to being unfaithful to his wife and hates the person he's become. In many cases, this is where the relationship between the two would be broken beyond repair, however, the children come in to console their father, and literally pull their mother in the join the embrace. This signifies one thing to me: the children are the glue in the family. They keep the parents together, as they don't dare to hurt their children. In the final scene when the father "rescues" the mother, it helps restore the beliefs the family originally had, and they continue on as they were. A slightly dysfunctional, if not loving family. However, the father, who in the film admits he is inherently dishonest, admits to his son he is a smoker in the last lines of the film. Some can view this as a negative influence as he is smoking, but others (like myself) can see that that the father is no longer lying. Now because of this, he can work to become the person he wants to be, as he has accepted the person that he is.