Captain Fantastic (2016)

Captain Fantastic tells the story of a family that live in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and we follow a father devoted to raising his six kids with a rigorous physical and intellectual education but is forced to leave his paradise and enter the world, challenging his idea of what it means to be a parent.

The film is good, there’s no denying that. The performances are all flawless, even from the youngsters. The writing was good, each character was well fleshed out, each member of the family very distinctly different to the other, each character with their own individual arc. The film did a very good job of making it seem as though the audience was going along on the journey with the family. The film was beautifully paced, it never felt boring for a second by delving into drama to the funny to the heartbreaking.

However, this film turns into a bit of a cliche in the 2nd act using ‘fish out of water’ comedy to drive the film forward which is unfortunate as the 1st act was so original. I unfortunately felt myself not rooting for Viggo Mortensen at times in the film, which I believe wasn’t the film’s intentions, especially at points like leaving his wife alone in hospital for three months, that sort of thing.

Overall, I thought it was a well-crafted film with really fun characters but I did feel as though the script was one draft away from greatness, to iron the creases out of the film to make it feel that bit more original.