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A mild-mannered provocateur, the Swedish director Ruben Ostlund has an unerring ability to irk certain viewers and crit- ics, many of whom seem to willfully misconstrue the thrust of his pointedly satirical films. Play, his third feature, re-created a series of incidents in the city of Gothenburg that involved adults passively look- ing on as kids of African origin duped middle-class schoolchildren into handing over their possessions. In both Sweden and the United States, opinion was divided between critics who decried the film's supposed "racism" and those who embraced Ostlund's high concept, and quite witty, emulation of surveillance video is a trenchant critique of middle- class mores and smug liberal hypocrisy.
Although Force Majeure, Ostlund's latest feature (winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival), has proved less controversial, it proved incendiary enough for one online reviewer to excoriate it as anti-male, "gender-biased junk. " (www.popmatters. com/post/187560-force- majeure-is- gender - biased-junk/) But since Ostlund's exasperation with-and considerable empathy for-his hap- less middle-class protagonists is nothing if not even-handed, such criti- cal huffing and puffing seems ludicrously misplaced. Still, there's no doubt that the film is meant as a calculated, if decidedly funny, provo- cation. Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke) and Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli), a well-heeled, photogenic-but otherwise quite banal-couple, are, when the film opens, enjoying a carefree skiing holiday in the French Alps with their two children. Relaxing in their luxurious, if boringly antiseptic, hotel room, they wear identical blue pajamas and appear contented enough to have emerged from a glossy advertisement in a fashion magazine. On the second day of their holiday, a catalytic event occurs: mistaking a "controlled" fake avalanche for the real thing, Tomas runs for cover and, neglecting his stereotypical obligation to women and children, leaves his family in the lurch.
This pivotal event sets the stage for an absurdist "crisis in masculini- ty" that leaves Ebba feeling betrayed by a husband she now views as hopelessly wimpy. The resulting marital tension also triggers a bout of hyperdefensiveness from Tomas, who, despite the visual evidence of a cell-phone recording, strenuously attempts to deny his culpability in the simmering scandal of Avalanchegate. Social awkwardness inevitably inspires nervous humor and the ante is only upped when Tomas's...