Captain Fantastic
Director: Matt Ross
Stars: Viggo Mortensen, George MacKay, Samantha Isler
Duration: 118 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd.

An idyllic, awe-inspiring landscape of a sunny sky shining luminously on a verdant forest deep in the Pacific Northwest fills the screen. It is a peaceful scene, made more so by the presence of a deer entering the frame.

Yet, the peace is shattered rather brutally. For this is not some wildlife and nature reserve, but the land on which Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen), his wife Leslie (Trin Miller), and their six children live, away from the trappings of modern civilisation. And we catch up with them in the middle of the rite of passage of the oldest son Bodevan (George Mackay) into adulthood.

Ben is determined that all his children, like Bo, grow up to be well-formed adults. But a death causes them to leave their home for a temporary foray back into society, where the children’s exposure to the life that Ben has been keeping them from leads them to question all that they have learned from him so far.

So no, Captain Fantastic is not the latest entry in the Marvel or DC canon – but Mortensen’s Ben is to be applauded for his superheroic efforts to protect his kids from what he perceives to be the dangers of the modern world and raise them in his version of Utopia. On the face of it, it would appear that Ben has done good by his kids. Their days are spent learning survival skills in the gorgeous wild woodland they call home, killing game and rearing plants for food, undergoing rock-climbing and other extreme physical endurance tests to learn self-defence and gain maximum fitness.

At night, the family gather outside their compound, sitting around a fire playing music or reading classic literature and learning quantum physics from good, old-fashioned books or discussing political ideologies with not a gadget in sight.

It is a life of clean living, healthy environment, learning and adventure and Ben’s motives are certainly genuine. Yet, will the kids suffer in the long term? And is it what they really want?

A charming, eccentric, and close-knit family, each of whom will warm the cockles of your heart

Writer/director Matt Ross’s script depicts a rather fantastical scenario, yet he imbues it with intelligent and relevant questions about parenting and the pitfalls of growing up in the 21st century.

Thanks to his funny, sympathetic and complex characterisation the protagonists are well rounded. They are relatable people leading to some genuinely touching moments and quite a number of laugh-out-loud ones, the kids’ disarming honesty and openness leading to some rather awkward situations. We admire Ben’s ambitious plans, yet we question his decisions, whether having frank discussions about sex with the younger members of his family, or giving them rather aggressive looking knives as gifts is appropriate.

In Ben’s father-in-law Jack (Frank Langella), who disagrees angrily with Ben’s way of life, we have a necessary – if unyielding – voice of reason, provoking a tug-of-war for the children’s affections and ultimately well-being.

Mortensen absolutely shines as the father – part disciplinarian, part philosopher. The actor gives a physically and emotionally absorbing performance as the unorthodox parent. He channels Ben’s immutable belief that he is doing the right thing, his tough, impassive exterior belying the unshakeable love he has for his brood.

His is a strong, charismatic and humorous performance, matched by the motley crew of young actors who make up the oddly-named brood of kids spanning the gamut from 18 to seven years of age.

There’s Mackay’s Bodevan, who yearns to go to college and who, despite his consummate skills, is painfully awkward around members of the opposite sex, Samantha Isler and Annalise Basso as the fierce and feisty 15-year-old twins, Kielyr and Vespyr, Nicholas Hamilton as fish-out-of-water Rellian, Shree Crooks as 9-year-old Zaia, whose fascination with the likes of Pol Pot is hilarious, if a tad alarming, and the youngest, Nai, played by Charlie Shotwell, who has a penchant for walking around naked.

They make for a charming, eccentric and close-knit family, each of whom will warm the cockles of your heart as they negotiate their re-entry into society with humour and curiosity.

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