Following decades of acting almost exclusively on the small screen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is following up Veep with a feature film that kinda plays like a Seinfeld episode with George Costanza saving himself, only in vastly more cinematic surroundings. Downhill co-stars Will Ferrell and Julia as a married couple whose family ski vacation in the Alps falls to pieces when Ferrell’s character abandons everyone during an avalanche. Naturally, his greater love for rescuing his phone throws the entire marriage into disarray, and they’ll be lucky if they surface from the whole mess intact. This trailer looks full of physical comedy and drama and impeccable timing, especially from the leading lady.
However, if the story sounds even more familiar than the analogy I already clumsily drew, Downhill is a remake of a critically acclaimed Swedish film, Force Majeure (2014). The name of that movie, of course, is the Latin term for an unforeseen event that can free up parties in a contract from continuing their obligations toward each other. In this case, that contract might be the marriage. However, even more relevant to our interests would be the appearance of a sage avalanche expert, played by Kristofer Hivju, known best as the milk-and-Brienne-loving Tormund Giantsbane from Game of Thrones.
Good to see you, Tormund.
Downhill, which also stars Zach Woods, Zoë Chao, and Miranda Otto, arrives in theaters on February 14.
