Captain Fantastic review: “One of the best of the year…”

Captain Fantastic review: Matt Ross brings this Sundance favourite to the south of France. Viggo Mortensen leads an impressive cast.

Captain Fantastic review from the Cannes Film Festival, 2016.

Captain Fantastic debuted at Sundance back in January, but this week receives its European premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and goes up for the prizes in the Un Certain Regard programme.

This slightly off-beat American drama, revolves around Ben (Viggo Mortensen), a devoted father of six who has raised his children rather unconventionally; in a self-created environment deep in the wilderness. Home-schooling the kids through an extremely rigorous physical and intellectual education, Ben is suddenly forced to bring them into civilisation following a tragic incident, and the children are introduced to a world they do not know and situations they may not be ready for.

Frequent actor turned filmmaker Matt Ross (his latest roles include Gavin Belson in Silicon Valley, and Charles Montgomery in American Horror Story) writes and directs this involving yarn following on from his feature debut 28 Hotel Rooms back in 2012.  It’s opening scene channels something out of The Revenant, but quickly the film’s tone and narrative becomes more reminiscent of Little Miss Sunshine as Ben and his band of highly educated by very naive children take themselves away from the daily routines of intense training and living off the land, to the tarmacked roads, corporate supermarkets and cheap highway diners of middle-America.

Along the way, Ben and his family make a stop to visit his sister Harper (Kathryn Hahn) and Dave (Steve Zahn), the children rather awkwardly interacting with their two teenage kids Justin and Jackson, who are more comfortable staring into the screens on their iPhones at the dinner table rather than having structured conversation, which is the norm for their visitors. The dinner table scene is also a highlight of the film, the two families clashing over Ben’s honesty with his kids and allowing them to drink wine, and their hosts shielding their children from the harsh reality of an adult world.

Viggo Mortensen, in his first major role since The Two Faces Of January back in 2014, is the clear highlight of this film. The actor delivers a rugged, raw, unguarded performance as the devoted father – his best turn for many years, and worthy of all of the praise that he’s already receiving following the film’s two festival bows. Also superb is George MacKay as eldest son Bodevan, the actor continuing on his rise to stardom and to secure his spot as one of the best British actors working today. A scene in which both are defined in Captain Fantastic is around halfway in where Bodevan reveals to his father that he has managed to get into every Ivy League college in America, something that he has achieved behind his father’s back.

The director has also managed to get some truly wonderful performances from the rest of his young cast, all of them as good as one another, particularly Shree Crooks as Zaja, and Nicholas Hamilton as Rellian, two of the youngest in the ensemble. At the other end of that spectrum, screen veteran Frank Langella turns up in a brutish, though solid turn as Ben’s wealthy father-in-law, someone who wants to bring stability and proper education to his family, and take the children under his wing in his sprawling suburban mansion.

Ross’ script is deep, heartfelt and utterly compelling all of the way through, and his direction is near-flawless. His film has a wonderful tone about it; it is both funny and indeed dramatic where needed, and manages to balance everything wonderfully. This is one of those films that leaves you such a positive feeling after the credits have rolled, and stays with you long after leaving the theatre.

An absorbing, entertaining, thought-provoking character driven film, wonderfully told – the definition of American independent cinema. I loved every second of it.

Captain Fantastic review by Paul Heath, Cannes Film Festival 2016.

Captain Fantastic will be released in the UK on September 9th, 2016.