Captain Fantastic.
Film review of one of Sundance's latest successes.
Director: Matt Ross. Electric City Entertainment, ShivHans Pictures.
Family/ Comedy/ Drama.
Rating: 4/5
Cast & Credits.
Producers: Monica Levinson, Jamie Patricof, Shivani Rawat, Lynette Howell Taylor.
Writer: Matt Ross.
Camera: Stéphane Fontaine.
Music: Alex Somers.
Sets: Russell Barnes.
Viggo Mortensen, George MacKay, Samantha Isler, Annalise Basso, Nicholas Hamilton, Shree Crooks, Charlie Shotwell, Trin Miller, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Zahn, Frank Langella, Ann Dowd, Missi Pyle, Erin Moriarty, Elijah Stevenson, Teddy Van Ee.
Synopsis:
Ben (Mortensen) and Leslie (Miller) have separated themselves from civilisation and have raised their children isolated in the wild. But when Leslie passes away, the rest of the family have to travel to New Mexico to attend the funeral and appease her will and testament. Along the way, the children start to engage with the "real" world and some start to reevaluate Ben's parenting methods.
Review:
Earlier this month I was lucky enough to see the UK premiere of Captain Fantastic at Film4's Summer Screen. It definitely seemed apt to watch a film about living in and embracing the natural world under the warm night's sky.
Viggo Mortensen is sincerely compelling in his performance and even more charming in person. He is our Captain Fantastic. No, not a superhero, but rather the rugged patriarch of the family and a father trying to do right by his children. Whether he is raising them fantastically or not is the film's focus.
Ben who disapproves capitalism, fascism and the modern American lifestyle isolates his family from such. His personal curriculum includes languages, music, literature and American history, as well as martial arts, hunting, rock climbing and other survival skills.
His children appear idealistic and well educated until they are brought in to the social world Ben has been protecting them from.
His eldest son (who has secretly applied and been accepted to Ivy League Universities) proposes to a girl he just met.
It's an amusing scene, but it also hints at how damaged and unprepared the children are.
Believing Ben to be emotionally abusing the children is his conservative father in law, Jack (Langella) who demands custody of them.
In any other film, Jack would likely be considered the villain. Yet this film makes you question who is in the right or wrong, especially since some of the older children are starting to argue about their unique upbringing.
Captain Fantastic offers no answer, and that is what is beautiful about this film. It is thought provoking, refreshing and full of emotions.
Sure at times it can get too whimsical for my liking and the children can appear too precocious that they become unrealistic, but it's easy to look past that since it all contributes to the level of bittersweet the film offers.
Released in UK cinemas today: September 9.
