When a crisis hits, it's hard to say how any of us will react. Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke), a handsome alpha-male type, has managed to drag himself away from work to join his family on a skiing trip in the French Alps. The first day of the holiday passes without incident, but on the second, their lunch at an outdoor terrace restaurant is interrupted when a controlled avalanche starts further up the slopes. Tomas begins to film it on his smartphone, casually reassuring his concerned son that the situation is under control. But as the advancing cloud of snow threatens to engulf them, Tomas dashes from the table — leaving his kids and wife Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) behind.
The repercussions of this ignoble act are explored with remorseless scrutiny in "Force Majeure" (originally released as "Turist"), a wickedly compelling drama from Swedish director Ruben Ostlund.
Nursing his bruised pride, Tomas makes the mistake of questioning Ebba's version of events and attempts to deny any wrongdoing. She responds, understandably, by pushing him away, and before long the children are fretting that their parents might split up. For Ebba, it's the viability of their family that's on trial; for Tomas, it's his masculinity.