Captain Fantastic (M)
Director: Matt Ross
Review by: Jessica Craig-Piper
Easily in the upper echelon of films released this year, Captain Fantastic is a radiant, singular beacon in the sea of sci-fi sequels and superhero blockbusters currently swamping the silver screen. This second feature from writer-director Matt Ross is a heartfelt exploration of unconventional parenting and the implications of choosing a life divergent from social norms. The visually resplendent story shot by French cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine (A Prophet, Rust & Bone) matches the quality of its aesthetic with that of its content – at once wholly unexpected and surprising, yet avoiding the pitfalls of so many of its indie contemporaries favouring quirk and style over substance.
Viggo Mortensen at his rugged and charismatic best is captivating as devoted father Ben Cash, raising his six children off the grid in the mountainous rural wilderness of Washington state. Administering their counter-culture education with a rigorous self-devised training schedule, Ben parents his offspring in accordance with the anti-capitalist ethics shared by he and his absent wife. The children are physically, intellectually and emotionally resilient; capable of hunting and growing their own food, scaling vertical cliff faces like professional rock climbers and providing sophisticated critiques of the complex literature they voraciously consume. A sharp critique of humanity’s subservience to consumerism, the narrative nonetheless retains a visceral, bittersweet realism that prevents it becoming an exercise in the glorification of back-to-nature utopianism. This isn’t a wish-fulfillment journey in paradisiacal idealism, and the cost of Ben’s choices are examined honestly.
“Your mother is dead,” Ben announces, unvarnished, to his children upon discovering his wife Leslie has committed suicide in an interstate care facility after struggling with bipolar. His directness is both inspiring and confronting in its antithesis to protective, paternalistic characterisations of modern parenting we are familiar with. Despite Ben’s consistent respect for the capacity and intelligence of his children, it becomes clear on the ensuing journey to Leslie’s funeral that their impressive skills have been honed in a specific and insular environment that has left them unprepared for the nuances of socialising in the outside world. “Unless it comes out of a book I don’t know anything!” despairs eldest child Bodevan after a disastrous first attempt at romantic interaction.
“Keenly balanced between heart-twisting earnestness and real laugh-out-loud humour”
Impeccably cast, there isn’t a weak link amongst the young actors, and Ross’s beautifully intimate direction and attention to detail confers a rich inner life to each character, leaving us entirely convinced of the very real tapestry woven of their relationships and history. Particular standouts are George MacKay as Bodevan, who has come of age and is restless for new experiences, and Nicholas Hamilton as pubescent middle child Rellian, rebelling against his hippy family’s outsider status by dreaming of fitting in. “Why can’t we celebrate Christmas like normal people?” he gripes as his father gifts them tools and weapons during their annual celebration of “Noam Chomsky Day”.
Keenly balanced between heart-twisting earnestness and real laugh-out-loud humour, Captain Fantastic asks what it really takes to live our lives authentically, testing the strength of our moral convictions against the demands of social conformity, and delivering layered, inventive storytelling that never underestimates its audience. Smart, engaging and genuinely moving from start to finish.
Captain Fantastic is showing in select Australian cinemas now.
