'Force Majeure' plucks emotional family drama from disaster.

• Author: Long, Jeffrey
• Position: Living

Byline: Jeffrey Long

'Force Majeure'

1/2

Distributed by Magnolia Pictures

Rating: R for some language and brief nudity

Running time: 1 hour, 59 minutes

The opening scenes of the drama "Force Majeure'' are shot against the breathtaking panorama of the French Alps. Majestic chords of organ music give thunderous voice to the terrible beauty of the landscape -- a rugged paradise that would as soon steal your life as your heart. To some, such words might sound like hollow rhetoric -- but for the family in this movie, they will resonate with harrowing reality.

We hit the slopes with four handsome Swedes: Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke, who resembles Donnie Wahlberg), his wife Ebba (Lisa Loven Kingsli), and their two kids, Harry and Vera. Ebba has booked vacation time for them at a luxurious resort, perhaps with the hope that a family that plays together will stay together. (They also nap and brush teeth together.)

The next day, while they lunch outside, disaster strikes. Ebba reacts instantly, doing what she can to protect Harry and Vera. And how has Tomas responded? He has fled.

Mercifully, the danger passes. Ebba, Harry, and Vera are uninjured, though quite shaken up.

Most of the balance of "Force Majeure'' is an absorbing psychodrama about the emotional fallout resulting from Tomas' desertion of his family. Ebba feels betrayed, and wants to talk to him about it. But Tomas curtly dismisses her version of their traumatic experience. Further, he demands to know why his recollections would be any less rooted in reality than hers.

In one of the film's more engaging scenes, husband and wife invite Mats (Kristofer Hivju), an old buddy of Tomas', for pizza. He arrives with his girlfriend, Fanni (Fanni Metelius). After a little too much wine, Ebba goes back on the pact she had made with Tomas, bringing up their touchy subject for group discussion.

Mats advances the idea that, facing the pressures of a life-or-death situation, a person may not always be able to live up to...