Captain Fantastic opens with the killing of a deer. It is a sequence both comedic and violent, embracing the strangeness of the situation while not backing away from the terror of the act. It is here that we first meet Ben (Viggo Mortensen), who along with his wife Leslie, raised his six children, with ages ranging from seven to eighteen, off the grid in the forests of the American Pacific Northwest. The kids are home schooled, and undergo rigorous physical training. They have been raised under Ben's very unique philosophies, which teaches them to be self-sufficient, radically honest, and intellectually curious.
The plot kicks when we learn of the current state of Leslie. She has killed herself in the hospital, where she was undergoing treatment for her bipolar disorder. Leslie's parents blame Ben for what happened to their daughter, and have no intention of letting him anywhere near the services. Ben finds Leslie's will and learns that she wanted to be cremated. And so, Ben and his kids pile into their bus and venture out into the larger world to complete a mission: recover Leslie's body and carry out her final wishes.
It is the blending of the darkness and the quirk that makes this movie hum. We are meant to be charmed by this family and their unique ways, but we are also meant to acknowledge that it may not be sustainable. There are limits to Ben's methods, and given the extremity of his position, it can lead to dangerous situations. When the film is at its best, that balance is evident in every frame. At its worst moments, it gives in a little too easily to the impulse of playing all of this as cute. The film doesn't always achieve this balance, but its attempt to do so make it worthy of consideration.
The film is at its most engaging every time it questions Ben's methods. As extreme as his philosophies are, the film presents it as an earnest attempt to parent. As strange as they all are, his children do seem to be exceptional. The real conflict arises when the movie lets the cracks show, when it puts to light the strange darkness that exists in Ben, the fears that led him to such an odd place. This allows the film to have a conversation about modern parenting; about the terrifying uncertainty people have about the right way to raise kids. In its smartest moments, the movie displays an understanding that Ben's real flaw is his certainty, his inability to acknowledge that there might be other ways to do things.
But the film as a whole seems to prefer quirk, and that kind of causes the film to fizzle out. There are too many moments that play the oddness of these kids for laughs, and a couple of really problematic sequences that play out as straw man arguments. It is a problem that a few of these kids never really establish much of a personality beyond their survivalist quirks. It is to the great credit of Viggo Mortensen that this whole thing works at all. The actor always projects some menace, even in scenes that seem to overplay the appeal of his character’s methods.
Captain Fantastic probably could have leaned a little darker. It would have felt more like a provocation, a real call to reconsider the way in which we raise children in this modern world. The main character calls for careful examination of everything, and the film doesn’t quite live up to that standard. But even so, it manages to offer something substantial in the strangeness of its characters, in studying a life outside the mainstream. It isn’t as thoughtful as it could be, but it’s probably still a little more thoughtful than most.
My Rating:
