Captain Fantastic Review

The Captain and his troopers.

Captain Fantastic Review – *Warning – This is not a superhero in a spandex flick but a story about a single father with six kids, out of the woods and into the city discovering the meaning of life as they go along. 

Power to the people
Stick it to the man! 

Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) and his wife Leslie (Trin Miller) left the modern-day civilization to raise their kids…check out their one-of-a-kind names… Bodevan (George MacKay), twins Kielyr (Samantha Isler) and Vespyr (Annalise Basso), Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton ) Zaja (Shree Crooks) and Nai (Charlie Shotwell) in the wilderness of the forest compared to the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle. Unfortunately Leslie develops a medical condition and had to be hospitalized leaving Ben solely in charge of their kids. Things get bad to worse when Leslie commits suicide leaving Ben no choice but to take his ‘troupe’ to the city to meet his in-laws. Ben is on a mission to fulfil Leslie’s last wish to be cremated according to Buddhist custom instead of following her father’s strict Christian tradition. An encounter between Ben and his kids with his father-in-law creates a tension between the family forcing Ben to re-evaluate his decision about raising the kids according to his way or leaving them with their grandparents for a better shot at life. 

Attending funeral hippie style. 

As the title suggest, Captain Fantastic is fantastically by played by Viggo  Mortensen and assisted by his ‘kids’ in this film. Each of them portrays their acting gift beyond their age. Acting chops aside, the storyline is also pretty different than your usual Hollywood servings focusing on the on the lives of these out-of-the-city-and-into-the-jungle-family. In no time you will find yourself rooting for Ben but at the same time also question his methods of teaching his kids to survive on their own. The splendid cinematography coupled with awesome music selection only adds to the excellence of this feel good flick. 

The shocked Grandparents.

Be sure to watch this with together your family members instead of just looking at each other’s individual electronic screens.