Captain Fantastic * * * 1/2

The Cash family think other people are weird!

This film is quite different to its cartoonish name; though, like a cartoon, it does stretch the bounds of believe-ability somewhat. Still, it’s a good yarn with a charming cast.

The Cash family are not your typical alternative hippy dippy family.  No vegans here.  In fact the film commences with the brutal slaying of a deer, which they do at least eat.

Viggo Mortensen plays Ben Cash, the father of a family that has decided that society has nothing to offer so they go live in the wilderness.  He has taught his six children to grow food, forage for food, hunt food.  They are supremely fit.  They consume books by the ton. He and his wife and their library have taught the children everything the know. They communicate with few others outside their own family.  We never meet Mum but we learn she is in hospital.

When they learn that tragedy will prevent her from ever coming home again they emerge and go to the city with consequences that are both very funny and distressing. They are appalled by the obesity of people, fascinated that you could buy a chicken already cooked and see nothing wrong with stealing from a supermarket.

It walks a fine line. One could easily lose patience with these characters but they remain charming if not entirely believable.  The academic knowledge they have and retain strikes me as very unlikely. They’re like walking encyclopedias.  Never has home-schooling been so successful. (Personally I am under the impression that only a person who knows nothing about education would be silly enough to think they can home educate.)

But the real charm and emotional heart of Captain Fantastic is the love and bond within the family as they support each other on a quest to retrieve their mother.