A mix of road trip, fish out of water and ruminations on what it means to be a good parent, Captain Fantastic first seems like a film that romanticizes it’s main character and his family dynamic.
Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen), his wife Leslie and his six kids live in Washington state deep in the wilderness, isolated from the modern world. The kids are homeschooled as well as given rigorous physical training as well as lessons in hunting, gathering and other necessities needed to survive.
The kids are incredibly impressive in many aspects: Bo (George MacKay) has gotten accepted in many high profile, illustrious colleges. The girls are highly talented and even their 8 year old Zaja (Shree Crooks) is reading and comprehending at an high school level.
The kids are seen as happy, accomplished, almost perfect in a way. Loving, tight and family oriented. It’s honestly what parents would wish kids could be and how they wish they could be raised.
The film knows this well and romanticizes this tight bond and how impressive this family is.
Then, the family learns that the matriarch commits suicide after years of having mental illnesses.
The drama of the film shifts at this point ever so slightly: there are cracks in this world that Ben has created for his family.
Captain Fantastic reminded me in a way of the AMC TV series Breaking Bad: in the beginning, the main character is meant to be looked at as a good guy, but that masks slips every episode until he becomes the villain he is always meant to be.
In a way, Walter White’s descent is similar to Ben Cash, but not in terms of morality. Ben’s story is about whether he is the right father for these kids.
And four 1 hour and 45 minutes, Captain Fantastic tells this story very well. As tight as the family is, Ben makes decisions that harm them in unintended ways and in very direct ways.
It’s great that he is teaching the kids to be self-sufficient, intellectual and showing the value of a tight, close family. He also helps expand their minds and pushes them to be better physically and intellectually.
But what Captain Fantastic does show very well in this movie is concept of multi intelligences. Yes, all of the kids are incredibly gifted in great ways; ways that most parents wished they could help their own kids possess.
But because of the sheltered life, their situational and social intelligence is horribly poor.
They know only of the people they have lived with, so they have no idea how to deal with people who think differently than them. They are disturbingly open about subjects that others find taboo.
And in one particularly brutal scene, they also don’t know how to deal with their burgeoning sexual desires, specifically Bo.
This concept of multi intelligences is particularly shown well with not just what the kids don’t know, but how the society around them is.
The romantic and bright feel of the woods in Washington are substituted with crass commercial buildings and upper-scale homes that look interchangeable. Scenes have a darker tone that foreshadows the incoming troubles ahead.
And honestly, this drama is very effective when it goes through the rise and the fall of Ben’s world that he constructed for the kids. It felt honest, sad and quite powerful in spots.
That is, until the last 20 minutes essentially copped out.
Not going to spoil what happens, but it really felt like before this, the drama folded into a tight ending that had a definitive message that had lasting power. Unfortunately, the last 20 minutes just makes it feel like the complex questions that the films was exploring got the rug pulled out from under it.
Captain Fantastic tells a smart, thoughtful story about what our expectations are for parents, what makes them bad or good parents and why, no matter your intentions, you may always be bad at it even with good intentions.
It has some beautifully shot scenes as well as a great performance by Viggo Mortensen.
It could be one of my favorite watches this year: but the film decided to essentially play the end safe even though it was portraying their characters as quite the opposite.
I can honestly see some loving this movie, but I will call it good but just missed being great.
The Wiz RECOMMENDS Captain Fantastic
I Am The Wiz 
Leave a comment