Review 449: Captain Fantastic

Captain Fantastic is an incredibly sad but very fulfilling and emotionally satisfying comedy-dram film, that's coasts along excellent thanks to the performances of the child actors and Viggo Mortensen.

Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) is a single father who is devoted to raising his six kids, Bodevan (George McKay), Kielyr (Samantha Isler), Vespyr (Annalise Basso), Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton), Zaja (Shree Crooks) & Nia (Charlie Shotwell) deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest with a rigorous and intellectual education cut off from society & community whilst his wife Leslie is in the hospital for Bipolar disorder. When an unexpected incident involving Leslie occurs, Ben and his kids are forced to leave their paradise and enter the real world, beginning a journey that challenges Ben's idea of what it means to be a parent.

The plot is as

Viggo Mortensen delivers a magnificent performance as Ben Cash. Ben is a former anarchist activist, someone who has become disillusioned with capitalism and American Life and has dedicated his life raising his kids in a much more physical, intellectual, philosophical and overall much more unconventional way than most parents would. His way he's raised his kids will probably come across as insane or insanely great.
To me it's ingeniously insane, Ben's kids are clearly physically healthier and almost certainly more intellectual than most modern children and teenagers but their lack of social skills and knowledge of popular culture (as evidenced when Bodevan attempts to chat up a girl, Claire (Erin Moriarty) and ends up coming across as nuts).

Captain Fantastic more than lives up to its name, 4.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.