Captain Fantastic (2016)

I've been meaning to watch Captain Fantastic for the longest time because of Viggo Mortensen and his praised performance and yet I kept putting it off to the point that I forgot about it. Thank god Margaret exists, or else I probably would have never seen this gem. 

Set in the Pacific Northwest forests, the film follows Ben (Viggo Mortensen), a father of six who has decided to raise his kids in the wilderness with his wife, Leslie (Trin Miller). When Leslie commits suicide after being hospitalized for bipolar disorder, Ben and the kids decide to travel to the funeral to fulfil her will of being cremated, and they are forced to face modern society.

It's a very simple and yet one of the most interesting plots I've seen in a while. It's the kind of story that keeps you glued to the screen not because of  surprising twists and turns, or an involving romance, but because it addresses important issues such as mental illness, kids' exposure to violence and sex —how is it okay for them to play violent videogames but is it not okay for them to know how babies are made?—, and the flaws in the American education system.

The great thing about Captain Fantastic is that it doesn't say this is right, this is wrong —although that's basically what Viggo Mortensen's Ben says to his kids all the time—, it provides a debate on how kids should be raised and how we live our lives based on societal norms and influences. I didn't always agree with the main character as I found living in the wilderness like that a little bit extreme, and I don't think it's right to make fun of someone because they believe in God, but I loved how brutally honest he was about everything with his kids, how he did not sugar coat anything.

The characters are also very compelling. Ben is both arrogant and loving with everybody around him which makes him such an interesting man. What I mean by that, since interesting is a non-word, is that his positions and actions are wrong at times and yet we sympathize with and care for him —as we do in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. He's a man with strong beliefs and won't change them for nothing in the world but at the same time is open to a different opinion as long as it is properly argued. Viggo Mortensen's performance is simply spectacular. He is able to make you cry and laugh at the same time, he is believable as the father and he wonderfully delivers Ben's struggle to come to terms with the fact that the way he decided to raise his kids was not that right after all. How did Casey Affleck win that Oscar instead of him?

Bleeker Street, Universal Pictures

The kids, on the other hand, aren't equally developed. While Bodevan (George MacKay) and Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton) are solid characters, both standing up to their father, the rest of them are pretty thin —the two older sisters, Kielyr (Samantha Isler) and Vespyr (Annalise Basso), basically are the same person; the youngest daughter, Zaja (Shree Crooks), and son, Nai (Charlie Shotwell), only have one personality trait: the first loves wearing a gas mask; the latter loves going around naked. Despite the script, the young cast is amazing.

Technically speaking, Captain Fantastic is pretty much flawless. The cinematography is gorgeous and captures both the beauty and the danger of the Pacific Northwest forests. The score by Alex Somers is excellent as it enhanced the emotional depth of the story. And director and writer Matt Ross finds the perfect balance between comedy and drama.