Sight&Sound - 04.2020

REVIEWS

April 2019 | Sight&Sound | 69

Reviewed by Joshua Rothkopf
A comedy of collapsing masculinity, Ruben
Ostlund’s Force Majeure, a 2014 Swedish
psychodrama about a ski trip gone belly up,
found endless ways to box in its unravelling
dad. Downhill, the perfectly unnecessary US
remake, doesn’t have nearly as much visual
sophistication; its co-directors, Nat Faxon and
Jim Rash, are better known as screenwriters (The
Descendants). Still, the premise is too durable
to botch. A family – now distinctly American
and neurotic amid the free-spirited guests of
a Eurotrashy chalet – witnesses a ‘controlled
avalanche’ that’s too close for comfort. When
the cloud of snow lifts, Pete (Will Ferrell) is
noticed to have selfishly sprinted away from
danger, leaving his wife and kids behind.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes a meal out of
her big confrontation, less a confession of
disappointment than an outpouring of withering
marital fury. (It’s Downhill’s one improvement
on the original: other modifications are showy
and ineffective, such as a luge chase and a
meltdown over a missing glove at a helicopter
base.) Inexplicably, Ferrell is the weakest link,
downplaying his character’s blooming sense of
insecurity despite a celebrated propensity for aria-
like tantrums. Why wasn’t he allowed to go full
Step Brothers and weep out his failure in the hotel
hallway while maids look on? If you saw Force
Majeure, that’s the scene we were
all waiting for. Silicon Valley’s
Zach Woods, meanwhile, as
a co-worker hoping to steer
clear of the mess, is too
timid to provide a comic
foil. The movie turns
ice into slush.

Downhill
Directors: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
Certificate 15 86m 13s

The Alps, present day. On a ski vacation, the

American Stanton family – Pete, Billie and their

two sons – are rattled by an intentionally triggered

avalanche that panics onlookers. After running

away from the perceived danger, leaving wife and

children behind, Pete is ostracised by his family,

a predicament amplified by the arrival of a meek

colleague and his judgemental girlfriend. Billie flirts

with a ski instructor, but ultimately is rescued on

the slopes by Pete in a redemptive act of courage.

Producers

Anthony Bregman

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Stefanie Azpiazu

Written by

Jesse Armstrong

Nat Faxon

Jim Rash

Inspired by the

motion picture Fo rce

Majeure [2014] by

Ruben Östlund

Director of

Photography

Danny Cohen

Editor

Pamela Martin

Production

Designer

David Warren

Music

Volker Bertelmann

Production

Sound Mixer

Robert Flanagan

Costume Designer

Kathleen Felix-Hager

Production

Companies

Searchlight Pictures

presents a Likely

Story production

A Nat Faxon and

Jim Rash film

Filmhaus Films

Executive

Producers

Erik Hemmendorff

Ruben Östlund

Cast

Will Ferrell

Pete Stanton

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Billie Stanton

Zach Woods

Zach

Zoë Chao

Rosie

Miranda Otto

Charlotte

Julian Grey

Finn Stanton

Ammon Jacob Ford

Emerson Stanton

In Colour

Distributor

The Walt Disney

Studios

Credits and Synopsis

Reviewed by Kate Stables

“I always deserve the best treatment because

I never put up with any other,” observes

charming control freak Emma Woodhouse,

in Jane Austen’s novel. She’s treated positively

splendidly in first-time director Autumn de

Wilde’s smart, sumptuous but snarky adaptation,

which serves up Austen’s frothiest romantic

comedy as an Instagram-ready romp.

Rather than execute a bold millennial

makeover, like the also much adapted Little

Women, Emma revels in the class-conscious chain

of romantic misunderstandings of Austen’s

original. Unabashedly a style-led movie, it

gifts Emma a Regency doll’s-house world of

ravishing country estates with vast drawing

rooms in sugar-almond hues, all wrapped in

manicured parkland. Anya Taylor-Joy’s pert,

appropriately doll-like Emma, undertakes

her meddling and matchmaking in costume

designer Alexandra Byrne’s exquisitely detailed

muslins and Empire-line pastel silks. Not since

Marie Antoinette (2006) have the idle rich looked

so appetising – though next to The Personal

History of David Copperfield’s colour-blind

casting, they also look very white indeed.

Despite de Wilde’s handsome, rigid

compositions, which nod to her photography

background, nimble cutting keeps the action

fleet rather than heritage-cinema staid. So

Emma’s plan to unite the malleable Harriet

with oleaginous vicar Mr Elton snaps along,

screenwriter Eleanor Catton’s short scenes and

perky dialogue mining the relentless social

rounds and snobberies of rural society for comedy.

Her most successful seam is female chatter – the

touchingly dull twitter of Miranda Hart’s spinster

Miss Bates, or the spiteful social point-scoring of

Mr Elton’s new wife (a preening Tanya Reynolds).

A resolutely stylish, sharp-edged film, it has

brittle spots, one of them Anya Taylor-Joy’s

Emma, initially a snobbish queen bee with

a mean streak. Her bickering romance with

old friend Mr Knightley (a captivated but

irritated Johnny Flynn) erupts with a start at a

ball, where you can feel the temperature flare

between them in lingering eye meets, a hand

trailing on her waist. From here on in, the film

has some emotional heft, the plot twists that

separate them more bite. Shot in shallow focus,

or prettily profile to profile, they’re gradually

separated from the throng. Though the film

doesn’t always foreground female friendship,

despite Emma’s protestations, late on it tears her

satisfyingly between love and loyalty. There’s

barely a bat squeak of protofeminism here,

with marriage and a fine house presented as

every woman’s holy grail, yet the headstrong

and opinionated Emma feels empowered

in a distinctly 21st-century manner.

Emma.

USA/United Kingdom 2020

Director: Autumn de Wilde

Certificate U 124m 52s

England, 1815. Matchmaking Emma Woodhouse wants

her new friend Harriet to refuse Mr Martin, a farmer

Harriet is attracted to, and marry vicar Mr Elton

instead. She brings them together frequently. Mr Elton

proposes to Emma and is rejected. Emma’s widowed

father insists that she not leave him. Emma’s friend

Mr Knightley reprimands her for meddling. Visitor

Frank Churchill intrigues Emma. Knightley’s interest in

orphan Jane Fairfax piques Emma. Knightley and Emma

fall in love at a ball. Emma thinks Harriet is in love first

with Mr Churchill, then with Mr Knightley. Emma insults

dull Miss Bates at a picnic, and Knightley scolds her.

Emma makes amends. Churchill’s secret engagement

to Jane is revealed. Emma sadly refuses Knightley’s

proposal, to let Harriet have him. She apologises to

Mr Martin for meddling. Harriet accepts Mr Martin’s

proposal. Emma and Mr Knightley are reconciled and

agree to live with her father after their marriage.

Producers

Tim Bevan

Eric Fellner

Graham Broadbent

Peter Czernin

Written by

Eleanor Catton

Based on the novel

Emma by Jane Austen

Director of

Photography

Christopher Blauvelt

Editor

Nick Emerson

Production Designer

Kave Quinn

Music

Isobel Waller-Bridge

David Schweitzer

Supervising

Sound Designer

Glenn Freemantle

Costume Designer

Alexandra Byrne

©Focus Features LLC

and Perfect Universe

Investment Inc.

Production

Companies

Focus Features

presents in

association with

Perfect World

Pictures a Working

Title Films/Blueprint

Pictures production

Executive Producers

Amelia Granger

Ben Knight

Cast

Anya Taylor-Joy

Emma Woodhouse

Johnny Flynn

George Knightley

Bill Nighy

Mr Woodhouse

Mia Goth

Harriet Smith

Miranda Hart

Miss Bates

Josh O’Connor

Mr Elton

Callum Turner

Frank Churchill

Rupert Graves

Mr Weston

Gemma Whelan

Mrs Weston

Amber Anderson

Jane Fairfax

Tanya Reynolds

Mrs Elton

Connor Swindells

Robert Martin

Dolby Digital

In Colour

[1.78:1]

Distributor

Universal Pictures

International

UK & Eire

I’m with cupid: Anya Taylor-Joy, Callum Turner

Will Ferrell

Credits and Synopsis

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