Movie Review - Captain Fantastic

Captain Fantastic (2016)

Starring Viggo Mortenson, George MacKay, Samantha Isler, Annalise Basso, Nicholas Hamilton, Shree Crooks, Charlie Shotwell, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Zahn, Ann Dowd, and Frank Langella

Directed by Matt Ross

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

The inhabitants of Captain Fantastic are people with whom I would never ever want to spend any time in real life.  Self-professed hippie Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) has taken his six kids out of the "normalcy" of society to live on their own private family commune in the middle of the Washington wilderness where they kill their own food, learn survival skills, live out of an old school bus, and learn about left-wing philosophies.  Leslie, the matriarch of the Cash family, was recently hospitalized for bipolar disorder and at the end of the film's first act, Ben learns that his wife has committed suicide.  With the kids devastated, Ben decides to put his children on the bus and travel to his wife's parents' home where he will try and convince them to acquiesce to his wife's wishes and cremate her rather than having a church ceremony and subsequent burial.

The bus journey makes up the bulk of Captain Fantastic and while it certainly showcases the bond Ben has with his six children, it does little to make me feel that what Ben is doing is good parenting.  While I recognize that my personal opinion is neither here nor there (Lord knows as a conservative-leaning movie-lover, I'd have to hate half of what Hollywood dishes out), the film wants the audience to believe that what Ben is doing with his wilderness living is the best thing for his kids despite the fact that the film shows us several times that it's not.  The film is inherently set up for us to root for the life of Ben and the kids to remain their current status quo, but we in the audience know that's not what's best for them and by Ben being so stubborn in his ways, I found myself losing interest about halfway through.  Granted, by the conclusion of writer-director Matt Ross's film, Ben eventually realizes that he needs to adjust his kids to some semblance of normalcy in order for them to survive in the real world, but it's a bit too little too late.

Still, despite this, Captain Fantastic is moderately engaging thanks to Viggo Mortensen at its core as the genuinely caring father whose disdain for modern life has transferred fully onto his children.  As for those kids, most of them do nice work helping Mortensen to carry the piece especially young Shree Crooks as the headstrong and inquisitive youngest daughter Zaja.  Obviously your mileage may vary, but something about the motivations of the characters made it difficult for me to buy into this film despite the good performances.

The RyMickey Rating:  C