Captain Fantastic

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Henry David Thoreau

I just happen to be reading Henry David Thoreau's book Walden for a philosophy club. When I saw this trailer I told myself I had to see this before it left my city. The similarity between the book Walden and this film are pretty high. With similar topics of arguments against commercialism and full industrialism. Then throw on top a yearning for spiritual truth and self-reliance. Still, this isn't just a stick your middle finger at the system film. It's way more than that.

Matt Ross has an interesting meditation on what it means to live outside society in America. He shows a couple reasons why someone would do this and show the pros and cons in a very interesting way. The views evolve as the story moves on. Such is life eh?

Viggo Mortensen acting is amazing in this role. With that said, don't overlook Jack (Frank Langella) acting in the film. For a good portion of the film, we only see the point of view from the family and mostly Ben (Viggo Mortensen) at that. But later in the film, you see Jack's motives too. I can see why he acted the way he did and I may have done this same if I was in his spot too.

Bo (George MacKay) gets a couple good scenes too. It's great to see him fumble through interactions throughout the film and to discover what he wants out of adult life. This may or may not conflict with what his dad wants.

I highly recommend this film and can't wait to see what Matt Ross does in the future. If this film comes to your town do yourself a favour and see it. Clever films are rare and need to be supported.

Set against the beautiful Pacific Northwest backdrop, Captain Fantastic is easily one of the most nuanced films to come to mainstream cinema in the last few years. It's main plot addresses the struggle when everyone has the best intentions but not the same values. Additionally, the film makes honest and straightforward comments on controversial issues in today's society that are often taboo in the media such as mental illness, the hypocrisy of children's exposure to violence and sex, religion, and the flaws in the American education system. This sounds heavy and uncomfortable but these issues are paralleled in such a way that parts of the film had us in tears; from laughing so hard. Director Matt Ross says the project started as an exaggerated exploration of the difficult choices that must be made in regards to raising children in today's society. I think the film goes a step further and awakens an internal dialogue in each of it's viewers about the way that we live our own lives based on societal influences. Furthermore, the performances given by the perfectly arranged cast enhance your investment in the story in a way that will cause you to question what right and wrong really are when you're only trying to do your best and do what you think is best for those that you love.

Captain Fantastic (2016)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Viggo Mortensen plays Ben, a father of six who is raising his children in a forest somewhere in the Northwest. Sectioned off from the real world, Ben teaches his children the education he feels they need and he also puts them through a physical training that has them extremely fit. After the suicide of his wife and their mother, the seven hop on their bus and head towards the funeral.

CAPTAIN FANTASTIC is certainly one of the better movies of 2016 and you could argue that it presents an extremely interesting and highly entertaining look at various social issues going on. Most people would look at this family and call them complete weirdos because of the way they live. Living in the woods. Hunting for your own food. No internet. No television. Basically they live like people used to before the world went a little mad. Director-writer Matt Ross really paints quite an entertaining picture of this family living off the grid yet it seems they have the most important things down pat.

I was really surprised at this film because it works on so many levels. I guess the simplest thing to say is that this film and the family in it perfectly capture life as there are many highs and lows here as well as many laughs, many fights, many great times and certainly many bad. At times the film works as a perfect comedy and at other times it's the perfect family drama. I was really impressed at how the director managed to make all of these emotions work so well off one another and it really did make for a complete picture.

All six of the actors playing the kids do a remarkable job and we get other great supporting performances including the ones by Steve Zahn and Frank Langella. Langella deserves a lot of credit because he really plays quite the jerk here yet he does so in such a fashion to where you can see and feel where he is coming from and understand the character. With that said, there's no question that it's Mortensen who is the star of the picture and he easily steals it. This is such a deep and complex character that you really did need someone like Mortensen to make it work. This is especially true since the actor can pull off the hippie side of this character so well but he also nails the dramatic side as well as the side of being a father and realizing that you might have messed up along the way.

CAPTAIN FANTASTIC is certainly an original picture, which isn't something that happens too often these days. We've seen movies about strange families before but this one really hits all the right notes.

I'm a resident and lover of the Pacific Northwest and pretty far left on the political spectrum, so this should have been a film for me. The cinematography is gorgeous. It's well acted and nicely directed. But I had problems with its heavy handedness and Utopian pretentiousness.

Perhaps if I were younger, with a more absolutist worldview, I'd have been able to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy this film without reservation. But it fell flat for me in a number of ways.

First, there are too many things that don't add up, from having a magically fueled bus available at all times despite a lack of that terrible capitalist green stuff to a balanced and varied diet supportive of an extreme training regimen even though living as hunters and gatherers without taking the time or energy to cultivate crops. Everyone manages to stay clean and well dressed despite a lack of electricity or running water. The children are educated to be philosopher-scholars, musicians, theoretical physicists, linguists, endurance athletes and survivalists (all at the same time, as if any one of these challenges would not be a full time endeavor reserved for ones of special gifts and talents) while handling every aspect of their fully self-sufficient lives in their idyllic nature preserve. It's never explained how the family manages to purchase a huge tract of old growth forest or manages to squat without consequence on public land.

Setting aside all of that, I found the political/philosophical point of view of the film heavy handed to say the least. The father inculcates the children with his westernized quasi-Buddhist spiritual philosophy and Marxist ideals; fine. But the film seems intent on antagonizing everyone who doesn't share such views -- though the themes are softened here and there, I guess in an effort to make it seem more open-minded and, thus, palatable to a broader audience.

Personally, though not a Christian, I see no need to belittle and offend those who are. While projecting a supposedly tolerant and nuanced worldview, with some tips of the cap to broad-mindedness as the father realizes he's been perhaps a tad extreme, the film is actually quite intolerant and demeaning of conventional values. Why, for example, is it a good thing to educate the children on how to steal? I've no issue with a nudist lifestyle and have in fact spent time on nude beaches, so I have an understanding of the ways in which removing clothing can strip away pretensions and leave people open and vulnerable in good ways. At the same time, is inflicting one's nudist philosophy on others a good thing? It's also worth pointing out that among the most extreme of contemporary fundamentalists, Wahabi Muslims have this habit of bulldozing the shrines of Sufi Muslims and erecting public toilets in their place as a means to belittle and humiliate. This film, which tries to embody themes that are open and tolerant, in a very real way commits the same offense as the Muslim extremists of Saudi Arabia with a gratuitous scene set in a public toilet.

At the end of the day, for all the messages the film seems to want to carry, it's really a rather thin and hypocritical gruel, blind to the irony of its own intolerance, offering little of lasting value (except a nicely nuanced nutshell review of the Nabikov novel "Lolita").

I've still given the film six stars because it's well crafted and for its efforts to be thought provoking. Those are laudable goals even if the effort ultimately falls far short.

This movie challenges lots of things that we wrongfully take for granted in today's society. Mortensen is brilliant for yet another time and all the cast is simply breathtaking.

The concept of the movie and the backstory were brilliant. A touching movie, heartwarming and brilliant all along. A father that although strict and sometimes military like, who's also artistic and deeply sentimental. An amazing depiction from Vigo Mortensen. Amazing.

A movie that in a simple but yet elegant way depicts all the things that have altered our society and brings forth lots of the things that really matter. It makes us think about the ways we were raised and rethink the ways in which we want our children to be raised.

This is a movie well worth your time. One of the best movies I have watched in 2016, by far!