Review #1,115: 'Captain Fantastic' (2016)

At first glance, Matt Ross' Captain Fantastic appears to be yet another low-budget independent effort from a former actor that employs a 'quirky' sensibility and approach to humour, as well as roughing up a popular actor and having them play against type. Yet this tale of a family raised as survivalists by their liberal father who is attempting to shield them from the consumerist society he loathes is one of the most touching films of the year, and one that is careful not to over-simplify the difficult subject matter of how to raise your kids. While it seems at first to be leaning heavily towards a purer existence of hunting and learning, it also ponders the dangers of inexperience.

Somewhere deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest live the Cash clan. Father Ben (Viggo Mortensen) runs a right ship, teaching his six children (three boys and three girls) how to survive off the grid, hunting what they need to eat and reading everything from Chomsky to Dostoyevsky, having become tired and disillusioned with the materialism of capitalist American life. When the film begins, Ben wife's Leslie (Trin Miller) is suffering from bipolar disorder, hospitalised miles away near her wealthy father-in-law Jack (Frank Langella). When she kills herself, Ben is told by Jack to stay away from the funeral or else he will be arrested, Believing his children should not be shielded from the harsh truths of life, Ben informs his brood bluntly of how their mother died.

All of Ben's children accept their way of life except for Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton), who openly rebels against his father. It's here that Ross highlights the hypocrisy of Ben's regime, as for a father who so smugly encourages free-thinking and open-mindedness, he rules the roost with an iron fist, with any undermining of his authority quickly stamped out. Seeing his children are grieving, Ben goes against Jack's wishes and embarks on a road trip in order to give his wife the burial she wanted, and it's on this journey that we see just how detached these children have become. While the youngest daughter can make a mockery of their older cousins' education with a word-for-word rendition of the Bill of Rights from memory, eldest son Bodevine (George MacKay) cannot speak to girls, proposing to one he meets a couple of hours after meeting her.

Captain Fantastic is also very funny, with the biggest laughs coming from a no-nonsense sex education lesson and the sight of Mortensen's todger. It also features some fantastic performances all-round from a group of youngsters who are surely destined for bigger things in the future, as well as Mortensen's career-best. Stubborn and arguably selfish, yet resilient and a genuinely loving father, his character is thrown through the emotional ringer as this survivalist superman undergoes a powerful awakening when the real world starts to creep in. At just shy of 2 hours, it's too long, with the energy of the first three-quarters clearly running low as it slogs along to the ambiguous final scene. Still, this is thought-provoking drama and laugh-out-loud comedy for the majority, with a film-maker to watch at the helm.


Directed by: Matt Ross
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, George MacKay, Samantha Isler, Annalise Basso, Nicholas Hamilton, Frank Langella, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Zahn
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie