Captain Fantastic: a wildly original and comic film from director Matt Ross. Thankfully not another film about superheroes, but a tale of two parents who chose to raise their children away from modern society, choosing to train them with survival skills and teach them a great depth of knowledge including quantum physics, philosophy and politics (yes even the six year olds). Overall they’re just trying to create the best world they can for their children. The father Ben must take his children into the ‘real-world’, to face their estranged grandparents and enter a world full of temptation and horror, in order to save their mother from a funeral she wouldn’t have wanted.
Captain fantastic, being one of Ross’ debut films as a director, is by no means simple. The film is full of metaphors and clever comments on the faults within society. Although the film is very character and plot driven. Beautifully shot from the start to end, comical and captivating, in it’s communication of every emotion possible. The film may give off the impression this it is about a strange hippy and perhaps barbaric family, but before long it is suggested that these are no ordinary ‘hippies’. The film is not trying to reject this unusual way of life, and compared to the negative portrayal of the modern-world, is perhaps much more understanding to why these parents have chosen this way of life. This is certainly revealed through Viggo Mortensen’s performance, as Ben is so obviously unhappy with the way normal people live and is concerned about the purity of his children and their naivety to this way of life when entering the real world.
Even though all perform well, Mortensen’s portrayal of Ben is the most notable. From the start he brings Ben’s complex personality and human struggle to life, it is easy to empathise with his character throughout even when there is conflict in the family. George MacKay performance is also brilliant, especially in the more comical scenes when eldest son Bo (George MacKay) flamboyantly courts a teenage girl. There are many strange experiences for the younger children also, they watch horrified as their ‘normal’ modern-day cousins kill innocent people mercilessly on their video games. A clever hint to how modern children have become desensitised to the act of killing, compared to the ‘barbaric’ cousins who only hunt prey purely to eat.
Throughout the cinematography of the film is beautiful, an art piece in its own right. The way the film is lit, in particular the end, which is full of bright-saturated colours, acoustic music and shots of glowing sunlight over the water alongside the continuously bright, colourful idyllic scenes of the forest, help to emphasis the divide between the two ways of life. Highlighting the simple, yet beautiful way the family live.
Stylistically a photogenic film, but Captain Fantastic is not a film I would want to place into a genre, at times it is a family film, others a black comedy, maybe it could even be considered a road-trip movie. Largely, this is a character-driven film. It is original, quirky, thought provoking and cinematically beautiful. A story that is full of emotion, from beginning to end. A brilliant, funny and heart-warming film, possibly one of the best so far this year.
Rating: 9/10
Image: Pinterest
Comments