Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/519957
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 31 MAY 2015 40 This Week IN CINEMAS TODAY St James Cavalier Valletta Tel. 2122 3200 NT Live Presents – Man and Superman 18:30 Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 2122 2225 Mad Max : Fury Road (3D) (15) 10:30, 13:30, 16:05, 18:40, 21:15 The Avengers: Age of Ultron (12A) 10:20, 14:30, 18:00, 21:00 Far From the Madding Crowd (12) 15:50, 18:25, 21:05 Tomorrowland (PG) 10:30, 14:15, 18:00, 20:50 Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (PG) 10:15, 13:50, 16:00, 18:15, 20:50 Get Hard (15) 10:30, 13:45, 16:05, 18:25, 20:50 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 2371 0400 Cinderella (U) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:00, 23:25 Get Hard (15) 14:10, 16:25, 18:40, 21:00, 23:15 Woman in Gold (12A) 14:10, 16:30, 18:50, 21:10, 23:35 Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (PG) 14:10, 16:20, 18:30, 20:45, 23:00 Good Kill (15) 14:10, 16:25, 18:45, 21:10, 23:25 The Duff (12A) 14:15, 16:30, 18:40, 21:05, 23:20 The Avengers: Age of Ultron (3D) (12A) 14:15, 20:45 Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (15) 14:20, 16:30, 18:50, 21:15, 23:30 Fast and Furious 7 (12A) 14:25, 17:45, 20:50, 23:45 A Little Chaos (12A) 14:25, 18:15, 20:55, 23:25 Mad Max – Fury Road (3D) (15) 14:30, 18:35, 21:15, 23:50 Turist (15) 14:30, 18:20, 20:50, 23:20 Tomorrowland – A World Beyond (PG) 14:30, 18:10, 20:55, 23:40 The Avengers: Age of Ultron (12A) 17:30 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 2158 1787 Good Kill (15) 11:05, 13:30, 16:00, 18:20, 20:50 Tomorrowland (PG) 10:05, 12:45, 15:30, 18:10, 20:50 The Avengers: Age of Ultron (12A) 10:00, 12:45, 15:35, 18:25, 21:15 Mad Max: Fury Road (3D) (15) 10:45, 13:25, 15:55, 18:25, 20:55 Fast and Furious 7 (12A) 10:10, 12:55, 15:40, 18:25, 21:15 Get Hard (15+) 11:00, 13:25, 15:40, 18:10, 20:55 Hot Tub Time Machine (15+) 10:55, 13:30, 15:35, 18:00, 20:55 WE all know the Tolstoy quote about all happy families being alike, and all unhappy families being unhappy in their own way. And sure enough, tons of fiction before or since Tolstoy's An- na Karenina (where the quote comes from) has capitalized on the family's – particularly the nuclear family's – tendency to wound, implode and haunt. Granted, many fictional fami- lies across various media are al- so portrayed as important points of reference for characters, or at least sources of comfort during troubled times. But we can't ig- nore the swathes of writers who have taken advantage of the fragile familial arrangement to wrench memorable stories out of them, in genres that can range from horror to comedy. Perhaps playing somewhat to cultural stereotype – which could sadly be one reason why it secured international funding and distribution – with Turist (aka Force Majeure) Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund presents a glacially ambigu- ous take on the family unit, one whose seams come unruffled during a supposedly idyllic ski- ing holiday. A Swedish family takes a holi- day to the French Alps to enjoy a few days of skiing. The glistening, snow-capped setting certainly doesn't disappoint, but the after- effects of an ultimately harmless incident nearly threaten to desta- bilize the family for good. When a placid lunch is inter- rupted by what looks to be an av- alanche, mother Ebba (Lisa Lov- en Kongsli) scrambles to protect her children, while father Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke) runs for his life, even stopping to pick up his phone and gloves. Though the supposed 'avalanche' turns out not to have been an avalanche at all and causes no death or even injury, Ebba cannot shake off the implications of Tomas's reflex actions. This plummets the family into a psychological crisis, with an already neurotic Ebba teetering on the edge, while Tomas is left brooding about his integrity as the family's supposed figurehead. From the photography to the mise-en-scene, this is a remark- ably well-poised film. Östlund gets plenty of dramatic mileage from placing our characters in luxuriant isolation, which lends an additional layer of irony to their growing familial troubles. The pristine white mountains are matched by the five-star ho- tel in which the characters play out their strained dramas, fre- quently under the watchful eye of a chain-smoking cleaner. This setup is ideal for the kind of takedown of the middle class nuclear family that we've come to expect from celebrated literature and film, and though Östlund's take doesn't exactly offer up any original insights, some intrigu- ing questions about the charac- ters' choices are put forward, so that at the very least the film will leave some sort of aftertaste. Performances are solid across the board too, with Kongsli in particular delivering a sensi- tive but maddening portrayal of a woman thrown over the edge. She is at pains to sell herself as the victim from the word go, but a conversation with a second- ary character reveals just how neurotic she actually is. Along with Tomas apparently none- too-stellar behaviour in the past, Östlund creates a solid founda- tion for a drama to sink our teeth into. Unfortunately, what the film boasts in ambition it lacks in execution. It all sounds great on paper but what we ultimately end up seeing on screen is the ghost of what Turist could have been. The introduction of a younger couple into the family's mess – fellow tourists Fanni (Fanni Me- telius) and Mats (Kristofer Hivju of Game of Thrones fame) – only serves to artificially hammer home the themes… drowning in chatter what could legitimately have made for tense and hard- hitting drama. There's something to be said for a comparatively small film that takes on so many themes under its wing. The awkwardness of it all is at least memorable, and – at a stretch – appropriate for a film that is underpinned by awkward- ness in every way imaginable. But the drama is too deflated, and at- tempts at dark social humour end up being lost in the mix. By Teodor Reljic It's not just the peaks that are icy ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ FORCE OF NATURE ★ ★ ★ ★ NATURAL FLOW ★ ★ ★ HUMAN NATURE ★ ★ NATURE CALLS ★ UNNATURAL FILM Playing happy families: Johannes Bah Kuhnke and Lisa Loven Kongsli TURIST (15) ★ ★ ★