Force Majeure reviewed: meaty and hilarious – but it may wreck your relationship

If you’re unsure about the man (or woman) you’re dating, go and see this film. It’ll cause rifts in a weak relationship, and yield powerful debate – or perhaps agreement on the central themes – in a strong one. It asks men to defend or disown the role of hero, and begs us to consider whether motherhood naturally graces its host with more altruistic instincts than fatherhood. Who’s braver: men or women? Or, let’s cut to the chase, you or me? At the core of this slick and sometimes hilarious Swedish film by Ruben Östlund is the non-rhetorical question: when push comes to shove, what would you do?

I’ve always been a believer in the universal – and the humorous – springing from the particular. And Force Majeure begins in a very particular way indeed. A perfect-looking, undeniably Swedish-seeming family are on a French ski holiday, staying in a minimalist luxury hotel. The parents, Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) and Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke), are as easy in English as in French.