Force Majeure
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: October 24, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
87
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SlateDana StevensDec 15, 2014
As the couple’s widening rift exposes the gender and class assumptions that underlie their marriage... Force Majeure morphs into a biting critique of modern masculinity, of traditional parenting roles, and possibly of the institution of marriage itself. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 20, 2014
Both funny and sad, often in the same glance-averted instant. See it with someone you'd trust to stick around in an avalanche. It's one of the highlights of 2014. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 6, 2014
Force Majeure leaves the audience squirming — in all the very best ways. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesNov 5, 2014
The film gets its biggest laughs – and there truly are some grandly bleak belly-shakers here – by upsetting the apple cart on traditional gender roles. Read full review
100
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 23, 2014
This brilliant, viciously amusing takedown of bourgeois complacency, gender stereotypes and assumptions and the illusion of security rubs your face in human frailty as relentlessly as any Michael Haneke movie. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc MohanNov 14, 2014
It's similar to 2011's "The Loneliest Planet," which examined a similar dynamic between a couple backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains. But Force Majeure (which, as a legal term, refers to unforeseeable events or "acts of God") is sharper and smarter, combining precision-strike storytelling, directorial art, and impressive, often invisible visual effects, including that avalanche scene. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 24, 2014
Force Majeure is ultimately about something not often explored in film: the consequences of male weakness in a world in which men are expected to be strong at all times. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 23, 2014
If there’s any fault to find in this expertly directed, frequently hilarious study of imploding male ego, it’s that Östlund basically arrives upon a perfect ending — one that brings the movie full circle, both dramatically and visually — and then bypasses it in favor of a more muddled one. But as climactic missteps go, it’s not exactly disastrous. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 22, 2014
It's the rare kind of moviegoing experience that will haunt you long after you leave the theater and lead to some very awkward conversations with your spouse. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 29, 2014
Force Majeure is a brutally smart and original film. Read full review
91
HitfixDrew McWeenyMay 26, 2014
Force Majeure is an impressive and adult piece of work, bracing and intelligent. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 30, 2014
This is a director's film, and Ostlund knows precisely the effects he is after. This filmmaker is in control at each and every moment, and does he ever know what he is doing. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 23, 2014
Force Majeure is a prickly moral comedy for grown-ups, full of sharply observed moments, spectacular scenery and masterfully manipulated atmosphere. This is very much a work of 21st-century global culture, but also one that draws on the great cinematic tradition of northern Europe, with hints of Ingmar Bergman, Eric Rohmer and Michael Haneke. Read full review
90
Village VoiceCalum MarshOct 21, 2014
Force Majeure represents what is perhaps Östlund's most sophisticated thought experiment yet, at once provocative and wise. It is a penetrating study of that most ludicrous of social pretenses — masculinity, toxic and ubiquitous. Read full review
90
The DissolveScott TobiasOct 21, 2014
Östland writes the conflict between husband and wife beautifully, like a scab that gets picked at until it bleeds, and he does things cinematically, too, to suggest the growing distance between them—an already-cool visual palette broadens like a yawning chasm. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 26, 2014
Visually stunning even in its most banal moments and emotionally perceptive almost to a fault. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 13, 2014
A cruelly precise, often bleakly comic account of upper-middle-class privilege coming unglued when the cosmos throws a curveball. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireOct 24, 2014
Unlike American movies, where our identification with one character or another would likely be imposed from the outset, Force Majeure stands back from its couple, allowing us to inspect the characters from a discreet distance and draw our own conclusions. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineAbhimanyu DasOct 20, 2014
It comes down on the essential hollowness of traditional gender roles like the avalanche that proves to be its inciting event. Read full review
87
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 26, 2014
Writer-director Ruben Ostlund (“Play”) brilliantly mines this dark material for awkward hilarity. Read full review
85
NPRBob MondelloOct 24, 2014
As odd as it sounds, director Ruben Ostlund manages to make Tomas's crisis of masculinity — his not having lived up to expectations that even he shares — as funny as it is appalling. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbyApr 6, 2015
A minor-key appraisal of modern marriage that manages to be funny, sad and, sadly, true – just don’t watch it on your anniversary. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid HughesApr 6, 2015
A brittle black comedy that has plenty to say about modern manhood and the human survival instinct. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 30, 2014
Ostlund's film is beautiful, capturing both the stunning scenery and the danger of the slopes and the mountains. Sure, everything looks great, but it could all fall apart in disastrous fashion at any moment. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 24, 2014
Being a puckish Swedish, the writer-director Ruben Ostland slips into a tone that makes Force Majeure almost seem like a deadpan — frozen — comedy. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonOct 23, 2014
Mr. Ostlund positions his troubled characters in an environment of polished ash and Scandinavian spotlessness, under which there are dark mutterings — the constant creak of tow cables and un-oiled metal. Read full review
80
CineVueBen NicholsonOct 21, 2014
Force Majeure is a gripping and deftly observed drama that adds caustic condemnation through its embracing of humour. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 21, 2014
The film builds riotously via a series of verbal takedowns as male authority goes limp in the wake of a regrettable impulse. This is slender material to build a whole film around, but Östlund turns it into something deep, for viewers with patience. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijMay 26, 2014
This is another solid and provocative feature from Ostlund. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 26, 2014
Mightily clever in its rather theatrical structure, but bracingly cinematic in its formal approach, the movie has a bold, ambiguous final act. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisNov 6, 2014
Be warned: This is not a movie for a first date. Or a second date. Or perhaps any date. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Nathalie AtkinsonOct 31, 2014
There are those trying to position "Gone Girl" as the date-and-debate movie of the season, but it isn’t half the unsettling thriller Force Majeure is. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 24, 2014
Force Majeure is a jolt. You won't know what hit you. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedOct 22, 2014
Force Majeure is a good movie, but as thought provoking as the ending is, it peters out ineffectually, while the actual staging of the avalanche to the crashing movements of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” seems vaguely comedic and disappointingly corny, if you ask me. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreOct 21, 2014
Chilling, cruel and funny — in an icy, Swedish way. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithOct 22, 2014
Though far too long for its wisp of a plot, this stylish film has a nerve-cinching grip that makes it more alarming than most horror flicks, let alone most movies about a couple having a tiff. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJan 30, 2015
What we get is a an intriguing relationship drama, one that is at times darkly funny, at others thought-provoking, but mostly piano-wire tense. Read full review
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