Captain Fantastic

Parental Rating: R

Contains: Language    Nudity    Violence    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens July 15, 2016

Runs 118 minutes
 

Ben (Viggo Mortensen) and his wife decided to raise their kids away from society. They live in the mountains. They hunt and fish. The kids are trained both physically and mentally every day. They run and climb and read all kinds of books. When the Mother becomes ill and must stay at the hospital, the clan carries on. Until they are informed that she has taken her own life. Ben and the kids decide to attend the funeral but that means that they will be once again among their peers in society. The grandparents Jack (Frank Langella) and Abigail (Ann Dowd) cannot understand why Ben is choosing to raise his kids out in the wilderness. This leads to a huge disagreement. Re-entering society is not easy for this clan. Will they stay together and return to the wilderness or will they finally re-emerge back into the real world?

This is a very good movie. But, certain things really bothered me and so I dinged it a little. These kids are raised to hate Christians and Christianity (and organized religion overall). They are living in God's gorgeous wilderness with no appreciation for the world they live in. The kids are raised learning Socialism is the greatest. They are never really preparted for the real world. Does Ben really think that they are going to all live in the woods forever? These things all bothered me. That being said, Viggo gives a great performance. His rough good looks fit in perfectly with the wilderness. All of the kid actors were good, especially the younger ones. And, their awkwardness was so cute. So, overall it was a good movie. It was just the lessons that Ben was trying to teach them that really bugged me. Still definitely worth seeing. 

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