Force Majeure uses its location (a ski lodge) and its catalyst (a horrifyingly hilarious incident with a controlled avalanche) as a subtle metaphor for how humankind wants to control the uncontrollable and overwrite their instinctual nature in situations where that just isn’t an option. It uses how a father reacts to a potentially life-threatening event with his family as a springboard to explore the fragility of masculinity and marriage/relationships when certain gender expectations aren’t met, twisting the archetypical father as hero figure into something more delicate, complex, and altogether new. While Downhill uses Force Majeure’s epic avalanche scene, it’s not so much an inciting incident as it is just another unsubtle example of Will Ferrell’s Pete not being there for his family. He’s checked out before the avalanche even begins to slide, too clouded by work and connected to his phone on a vacation that’s supposed to be all about family — which we later learn was provoked by the death of Pete’s father, something that is an addition to the original and isn’t explored or utilized to any meaningful effect.

Downhill wrestles with a lot — the struggle to be totally present and not selfishly live in the moment, how couples come back from difficult and sometimes traumatic events together, how the ways of our parents manifest into our own parenting, etc — but none of it is effectively explored or fleshed out enough for any of it to ring true. In its quest to ski a different course than its superior predecessor, it gets totally lost along the way, lacking in intention, focus, and clarity. Any of its quiet successes are completely undercut by its eye-rolling 2nd act (where Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Billie has a solo ski day that takes a 180 from the original for no real reason) and baffling conclusion that’s less about Pete reclaiming his place in the family and more about an extremely forced moment of female empowerment.