Viggo Mortensen is one of our finest actors, and he's the best thing about Captain Fantastic, the uneven and exhausting new film from writer/director Matt Ross (28 Hotel Rooms). Mortensen slips so comfortably into the role of Ben Cash, a counterculture dad raising six kids off the grid in the rugged Pacific Northwest woodlands, that you can't imagine anyone else playing the role. And he's given excellent support from an outstanding ensemble cast that includes Frank Langella, Steve Zahn, and Kathryn Hahn. Unfortunately, Ross' film isn't as fantastic as it thinks it is. While there are many touching and emotionally raw moments, the movie overstays its welcome and loses focus in the second half, eventually becoming little more than a series of incredulous and off-putting scenes.
Ben and his bohemian brood, who range in age from six to 18, live completely off the land. They hunt, grow their own vegetables, and are rigorously trained in survivalist methods. Ben and his wife Leslie (Trin Miller) have homeschooled them well: The kids have a good grasp of quantum theory, speak several languages, and are voracious readers. Everything is oh-so-Kumbaya, until mom enters a hospital for depression and commits suicide. Suddenly, the family's idealized existence is thrown into chaos and they are forced to enter the outside world to attend her funeral in New Mexico, where she was being treated near her parents' home. Leslie was a Buddhist who wanted to be cremated and have her ashes flushed down a toilet, but her father (Langella, top notch as always) insists on a proper Catholic service and burial, so Ben and the kids board the family's decked-out bus and head southwest to stop the funeral and carry out her last wishes.
It immediately becomes clear that, although Ben's kids are intellectually gifted and physically fit, they have zero social skills and no idea how to interact with anyone outside of their own cult-like clan; simply put, they haven't been prepared at all for life beyond their sheltered, free-spirited existence. Ben, too, possesses few social skills, which becomes increasingly evident as each conversation he has with outsiders -- including his sister (Hahn) and brother-in-law (Zahn) -- quickly escalates into an argument. He teaches his kids to despise capitalism, steal food from a grocery store, mock Christians (the only group the kids are permitted to make fun of), and celebrate philosopher Noam Chomsky's birthday instead of Christmas. It's all supposed to feel lighthearted and cool, but after a while, you begin to realize that Ben's arrogant, unfiltered parenting is actually harming his children. Thankfully, he starts to see it too, but not after making a fool of himself at Leslie's funeral and getting into a heated encounter with his wealthy father-in-law, who blames Ben for his daughter's death.
Ross partly based Captain Fantastic on his own communal, off-the-grid upbringing, and the early scenes of deer hunting, rock climbing, hand-to-hand-combat training, and playing music around a nighttime campfire feel authentic and are full of energy. But once the story moves beyond the wilderness to the "real" world, it starts to wander and loses much of its momentum, finally destroying its credibility during the final act as Ben and the kids stop at nothing to "rescue" Leslie from an eternity underground.
But no matter what happens, Mortensen is magnificent. He gives a warts-and-all, in-your-face kind of performance that burrows deeply under your skin, sometimes uncomfortably so. It's an onscreen gem that should be remembered come awards season.