Captain Fantastic
30/04/17 Filed in: Amazon Prime
You know you have an interesting film when the Guardian's film critic Peter Bradshaw awards it one star, while the Observer's critic, Mark Kermode, awards it four. Which of them is right ? This is certainly a unique sort of film, although our esteemed professional critics always seem to be able to make comparisons with earlier offerings. For me it was something different and although at times it stretched credibility, it certainly turned conventional wisdom on its head as far as raising children is concerned.
The film starts with a moving panorama of a forest in the Pacific Northwest, before zoning in a nervous deer browsing foliage. You just know this animal is going to meet a sticky end, but the manner of its demise makes you jump. A young man daubed with camouflage mud is the hunter and soon the rest of the family arrive, all similarly muddied, led by Ben, the father. This has been an initiation into manhood for Bodevan, the eldest son. If you think his name's odd, try the others: Kielyr, Vespyr, Rellian, Zaja and Nai, three girls and another two boys. The names were chosen to make them unique, each being the only person 'in the world' with that name. This exemplifies the philosophy that Ben adopts for his children, who he home schools in a forest encampment, where they all bunk out in a giant wigwam.
They hunt, trek, train in self-defence and climb sheer rock faces while amassing an enormous amount of book-based knowledge in their isolated existence, where the cult of social media, and the associated technology to access it, doesn't so much not exist as is totally unheard of. They speak multiple languages, critique literature at a level far beyond their years, wrestle with quantum physics, and much else. And they reject outright the world that exists outside their parochial existence.
But all isn't completely well. The children's mother is in hospital, suffering from bipolar depression. The ongoing story revolves around whether Ben's decision to take his wife, Leslie, into this alternative life helped her condition, as he expected it would, or made it worse, the view taken by Leslie's parents. When Leslie dies, her parents forbid Ben to attend the funeral. But Leslie left a will with very specific instructions regarding her funeral, and despite threats that he will be arrested, Ben sets off with the family in their coach.
This trip exposes the children to the outside world for which they are ill-equipped to cope, most notably Bodevan, whose encounter with an attractive girl leads to a scene that could be said to be cringing, or as she thought, amusing, not being able to comprehend that anybody would seriously behave in such a manner. If the trip to the funeral caused some interesting interactions, what happens when they get there is a collision of cultures. Events lead Ben to consider whether his approach to parenting has, in fact, been detrimental to the children, despite all their abilities and phenomenal academic prowess. He decides to leave them with their grandparents and sets off a broken man. But there is a surprise in store.
I enjoyed this film and thought Viggo Mortensen was very convincing as Ben, while the actors playing the children were all superb, especially the younger ones. The sequence where they were climbing the rock face appeared very realistic and while no doubt there were many safety measures in place, if indeed it was real and not generated graphics, then those kids were certainly gutsy. You wouldn't have got me up there.
This trip exposes the children to the outside world for which they are ill-equipped to cope, most notably Bodevan, whose encounter with an attractive girl leads to a scene that could be said to be cringing, or as she thought, amusing, not being able to comprehend that anybody would seriously behave in such a manner. If the trip to the funeral caused some interesting interactions, what happens when they get there is a collision of cultures. Events lead Ben to consider whether his approach to parenting has, in fact, been detrimental to the children, despite all their abilities and phenomenal academic prowess. He decides to leave them with their grandparents and sets off a broken man. But there is a surprise in store.
I enjoyed this film and thought Viggo Mortensen was very convincing as Ben, while the actors playing the children were all superb, especially the younger ones. The sequence where they were climbing the rock face appeared very realistic and while no doubt there were many safety measures in place, if indeed it was real and not generated graphics, then those kids were certainly gutsy. You wouldn't have got me up there.