The film for which I have begrudgingly dragged myself to the theater this week is Downhill, which is named, of course, after the direction in which Will Ferrell’s career has been going lately. I really hate to talk shit about a fellow Trojan but my word did anyone else suffer through the steaming pile that was 2018’s Holmes and Watson? Absolutely unwatchable. Literally. I only watched the first thirty minutes before I quite simply couldn’t fuggin’ take it anymore. But let’s be honest, shit really started hitting the fan for Ferrell’s name a while ago, around the time he churned out both Get Hard and Daddy’s Home in the span of a single year. I mean, Christ on a cracker. So, let’s see if this film proved to be a much-needed infusion of fresh material into this comedy king’s dying career, or if it’s merely another nail in Will’s coffin.
One-Sentence Synopsis:
Essentially the antithesis of Ferrell’s career-defining role in Step Brothers as Brennan Huff, a man-child who can’t figure out how to be a grown-up, Downhill revolves around a middle-aged man who just wants to live the riveting life of a young person again, but feels trapped by his adult commitments.
My Review:
In a rather unexpected turn of events, I genuinely liked this movie. Like… seriously. I thought it was a thoughtful, well-executed, and well-acted examination of what marriage looks like after decades together, and the kinds of sacrifices it takes to make a lifelong partnership, and a family, work. Albeit it got off to a bit of a slow start. But in the end, I felt like I walked out of the theater with some sort of mental and emotional sustenance.
So then what the hell went so damn wrong in the eyes of literally everyone else that saw it (or at least the majority of critics (62%) and audiences (87%) who straight up did not like this film)? The answer on the audience front is extremely simple. This is not a comedy. Alright fine, it was pretty funny when the Swedish hotel employee and resident free spirit remarked that her job allowed for sufficient free time to *overexaggerated vaguely Scandinavian accent* “catch a dick wheneva I like.” But beyond a small handful of one-liners and otherwise well-delivered moments like this, Downhill is a drama through and through.
When you cast two legends like Will Ferrell and Julia Louis Dreyfus as the leads in a film, people’s minds are gonna go “okay, so it’s a comedy.” Admittedly, I too actually thought it was a comedy up until about 20 minutes in. And, generally speaking, if you’re expecting a lovely laugh-packed ride full of light-hearted family fun à la something like Blended, anything but has the potential to mistakenly come off as simply worst comedy you’ve ever seen (especially when there are still a couple of jokes in there and it’s labelled as a Comedy/Drama on IMDb). Chalk it up to bad marketing.
Now, on the critics side of the spectrum, the downfall of Downhill stemmed from something far beyond the film itself, its cast, or its audience’s expectations. Rather, the trouble comes from the source material from which this film mines its inspiration. As it turns out (upon doing literally any research at all, which I did not prior to seeing this movie), Downhill is actually based on a 2014 Swedish film called Force Majeure, with which it shares essentially the exact same plot. And while there are plenty of worthwhile faithful adaptations out there (Little Women, anyone??), critics took issue with what they generally considered to be a pale imitation of the original. One critic dubbed the new iteration, “An odd, misguided remake.” It seems that the general consensus is that ultimately Downhill was just a failed and unnecessary attempt to American-ize a film that was already great in its own right.
Well, I believe it. Seeing as Force Majeure won the “Un Certain Regard” jury prize at Cannes, on top of being nominated for both a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, I feel pretty comfortable in saying that, yeah, it’s probably pretty good. And if you all don’t know by now, let me reiterate that I HATE remakes/reboots/sequels, especially when they bring nothing new to the original story. So, critics, I hear ya on this one. That being said, I haven’t seen Force Majeure. Therefore, I have no point of comparison. And, for me, Downhill as a self-contained entity was effective and meaningful.
Scoring Rubric (On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most exciting)
- Me actually enjoying the film – 5/5
- The scene with Kristofer Hivju (Tormund from Game of Thrones) in it – 5/5
- Finding out that Kristofer Hivju was actually in Force Majeure as well – 5/5
- Finding out that Downhill is based on Force Majeure and that the only good movie I have seen thus far is deeply unneeded and unoriginal much like the rest – 1/5
Overall Score: 4/5 (Luckily, not bad enough to singlehandedly finish off Will Ferrell’s career)
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Sources:
Who Let These Movies Happen? 
Your posts always make me laugh! I also have some words for whoever is managing his career because I cannot see him making a comeback. Because you actually enjoyed this movie, I am most likely going to watch the original…so not an entire disappointment for your fans!
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