Downhill

First Hit: Despite an excellent performance by Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Billie, this film goes downhill because of Will Ferrell as Pete.

Most of you who have read this blog know that I’m not a big Will Ferrell fan. It was in this film that he shows how incapable he is of showing a depth of character. He had the opportunity to show real wisdom in this role, and with a partner like Louis-Dreyfus, who serves as an incredible, intense foil in this film, he didn’t show up. Just as he didn’t show up as the character struggling about his marriage in this film.

The story is about Billie, Pete, and their two sons Finn and Emerson, on a once in lifetime ski trip in the Alps. There is a slight tension as they check into the hotel revealed by Billie’s tense facial expressions.

As the film wears on, there are moments when this tension subsides momentarily, but the marital discord becomes clear when Billie has to keep reminding Pete to get off the phone and quit texting his workmate Zach (Zach Woods) and Zach’s new girlfriend Rosie (Zoe Chao). You get the sense that he’s jealous of Zach.

When a controlled avalanche barrels down on the lodge deck where they are sitting down to eat, Pete runs away from his family out of panic. Leaving Billie to wrap her arms around Finn and Emerson protecting them from the snow crashing around them.

Pete’s running away becomes the elephant in the room until they have cocktails with Rosie and Zach. Billie tells the story, and Pete tries to defend his behavior, which erupts into a huge fight bringing their marriage issues to the table.

Here is where Ferrell’s failings as a dramatic actor come to fore. When the camera focuses on him and the expression in his narrowly spaced eyes, there isn’t much at home. He’s like a child, and the audience realizes what Billie has been dealing with, raising three children, not two.

As a side note, this is a remake of “Force Majeure”, a film I saw in 2014, which was better in many ways.

Louis-Dreyfus is fantastic in this film. I’ve never seen her act in a dramatic role, and she excels here. She has a very expressive face, and it tells the story as you need to know it. Ferrell is like a man child. He has minimal range, and his previous role as an overgrown santa helper in Elf, probably fits him perfectly. Miranda Otto (Charlotte), as the hotel representative who tries to give Billie advice about living her life more fully, is hilarious. Jesse Armstrong and Nat Faxon wrote a good screenplay. Faxon directed the film, and despite Ferrell’s inability to put depth into his role, the rest of the film was terrific.

Overall: I was severely disappointed in the way Ferrell’s performance hurt this movie.

The Homesman

First Hit:  A well-acted slow evolving film that seems to end in mid-sentence.

Hilary Swank as Mary Bee Cuddy is anything but plain, although the makeup personnel did their best. I think she is and was interestingly beautiful in this film.

Here she is a single smart capable and headstrong woman who is making her way as a farmer in the desolation of “the territories” (later known as Nebraska). She propositions men for marriage by announcing her assets (money in the bank, two strong mules and land) but they decline saying she’s as “plain as a pail” and “bossy”.

The harsh winters have caused three women to “go crazy”. However, to me it was the men who pushed these women towards their craziness by being thoughtless. Anyway, Cuddy decides to take them back to Iowa where they can be with their families.

To help her on this journey she employs George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) who is just surviving by cheating and stealing. How they meet is a hoot and sets up their relationship perfectly. Together they set out to take Anabella Sours (Grace Gummer), Theoline Belknap (Miranda Otto), and Gro Svendsen (Sonja Richter) to Iowa so that they can be reunited with their families.

The trip is about the relationship between Cuddy and Briggs and how they survive the long trip through the cold, desolation and their ability to become friends while minding their precious cargo. What was fittingly odd, was the ending – would Briggs have closure or would he just do what was next.

Swank is amazing and could get an Oscar nod. Jones is amazingly strong and he also wrote and directed this film. Gummer, Otto and Richter were good in their limited but strategically important roles. Kieran Fitzgerald co-wrote the longish film with Jones who also directed this film with some great prairie visuals and some very interesting one on one scenes.

Overall:  I didn’t love this film, but watching great actors act was worth the time.