CaptainFantastic

Despite what you might think about the title, this film has a very thought-provokingly attractive premise. A father is living with his kids out from destined civilization, molding his successors in wilderness, by feeding them knowledge about the nature, food-hunting, self-defense, random books on advanced literary education, tests, music, fitness training, archery, mountain climbing etcetera. He and his wife has come to a cohesive decision on this, as they want to stay away from the undereducated, overmedicated & capitalism governed American society. Right on from the remarkable opening encompassing a deer's reaction, time is taken to establish their world believably, and you can easily tell it's taking place in the current era.

Immediately questions & thoughts rush into your mind like dolphins. What's his money source? Clothing? How are the kids going to find their rightful partners in life? These are the confrontations that are answered in the film's Second & Third Act when the expedition to mum's funeral begins. The screenwriters got all of it covered. When you throw a set of family who's comfortable with the way they're living into a completely different universe, how do they react? Therein lies conflicts and a good drama is born. They only buy what they need, which still does not justify their supermarket theft. This is a mistake addressed in the script, however. For higher education, relationship learnings & sexual needs, son Bodevan (George MacKay) travels to the Namibian forest.

Out of the many unique to all human existence practices we find in this picture, the most intriguing aspect would be the education part. This is seen especially through the scene where the dad explains about sexual intercourse to his son Nai (Charlie Shotwell). The kind of complicated technical details the conversations have are simply mind-opening. When he compares his kids to the regular ones through a sharp scene regarding Bill of Rights, your hands automatically start clapping by itself!

While all these seem imposing, the movie does present points of views from both sides of the world. It also pins down the faults in Ben's methodologies. Like Bo says, unless it comes out from a book, the kids do not know anything about anything. Feelings, emotions, interactions with other people or normality do not transpire through isolation! The character Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton) is one such pea under the mattress who seems to repel the way they're living. However, these two arcs are not complete when the feature ends. Their sudden change is not a fathomable resolution. And the official transcripts & tests of Bo is unconvincing to an extent.

When Ben, portrayed astoundingly by Viggo Mortensen learns that his wife wasn't 100% into the plan, it becomes a sad slap of confusing reality. This could be due to her bipolar disorder, but how is he supposed to help a person who wants to dwell in the forest as much as she loves to leave it, as requested by Rellian? His visions of Leslie (Trin Miller) does come off as pretentious. Ben is mostly a calm man, but he does appear to be an unnecessary troublemaker, especially in the church prior to burial. His emotions could have been challenged due to grief.

This film breaks little by little towards its ending. It is impossible for the 6 of them to have hidden in the hollow bus, without being noticed by their father. Although it's their dramatic need, to mess with an already buried body seems unneeded as they are meddling with an already solved story point. When the family begins a normalized life in a farm, the motion picture concludes with more questions than answers. What is Ben's occupation now to support himself and dependents? Why are the kids heading to a local rural school? Well, probably to gain exposure en route to living with other human beings. They may seem stuck in a life between what was intended for and the current one, but this could be the best balance between both for a normal life, although this does make the point of the initial film sequence useless.