Captain Fantastic

This film is exactly as its title suggests: fantastic.
Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen, excellent) and his family live pretty much off the grid in no man's land Washington. He and his children live in a wooded house and commute to the town in Steve, their converted school bus which can also be their home away from home. He has taught his children to hunt, defend themselves and how the rest of society is horrid. The children are incredibly intelligent and talented but have extreme awkwardness around others as they have little experience with the real world. No subject in their life is off limits and he is frank with his children when discussing life events. He tells his youngest child about sex and rape though she is only six.
Then, the unthinkable happens. His wife dies. She suffered from bipolar disorder and slit her wrists. Her father, Jack (Frank Langella) forbids Ben from attending the ceremony, nor will he honor his daughter's dying wish, that her body be cremated and her ashes flushed down a toilet. That was even written down. His children want to attend but Jack has warned Ben that if he shows up, he will be arrested and at first, Ben decides to listen. However, upon finally taking to heart the glum expressions of his children, he decides to stick it to the men. They begin the road trip, which probably takes longer than the five days they have until Leslie's funeral. (Leslie is his wife.) They visit Ben's sister, Harper (the always brilliant Kathryn Hahn) and her husband, Dave (the also always great Steve Zahn) and their two sons who love video games and everything electronic. They have the traditional lifestyle while Ben will let his children freely curse and even drink a little bit of alcohol. His nephews do not know the truth about their aunt and he tells them, not respecting the rules of the house. Instead of sleeping indoors, they sleep under the stars. But his children are far smarter than his public school educated nephews, but his kids don't know what a Nike is. Okay, it is a Greek God but they don't know that it is a popular shoe brand.
Then they show up at Leslie's funeral and he interrupts the priest's eulogy and tells the crowd about what Leslie would have really wanted. Jack has him escorted out. Though Jack is a good man, he doesn't let his wife, Abigail (Ann Dowd) spend as much time with her grandchildren as she would like.
However, things get complicated when the rebellious son, Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton) runs away to live with his grandparents as he is furious at his father for getting his mother help when she needed it. He also provides Jack with the fodder he needs to secure his fight for full custody of the children, as some of the survival activities Ben had the children participate in would be considered borderline child abuse. Despite this, Ben will not give up without a fight. He has his second oldest daughter, Vespyr (Annalise Basso) rescue him, which includes climbing on a roof. This is dangerous and I knew right away that she was going to fall, which she does. She is severely injured and must wear a neck brace though her injuries could have been much worse. This finally forces Ben to realize how dangerous his exercises can be. He decides to let Jack have the  children, though that doesn't last.
The children hide in Steve and Ben is surprised when they emerge.
But they have one final mission, rescue Leslie from her grave. Which they do and they have the funeral that she would have wished for, flushing her ashes down an airport toilet.
Though this is the main plot there is also the secondary plot of the oldest son, Bodevan (George MacKay). He has been accepted into many elite colleges such as both Harvard and Yale, which he die with his mother's help. I did wonder because they have absolutely no technology. Bo also proposes to a girl (Erin Moriarty) he meets at a trailer camp after their first date. Which is certainly the funniest scene in the film though also the saddest as he just doesn't have a grip on real life. In the end, he ends up going to Namibia. To do what, who knows? I was just surprised that he was able to obtain a passport.
Now, I do have a few issues with the film. If Ben believed that Leslie's mental illness started as post-partum depression after Bo's birth, why did they have so many kids? Also, Leslie was just forty-one when she died. She already had an eighteen year old. There is no way she could have had a law practice by then as the priest says in her eulogy. Also, I wish there would have been some more talking at the end. The children are finally in normal school though they still live organically. And the film forces you to think. Is Ben truly doing the children a favor by living the life he does? Is he doing more harm than good?
A great example of this is the scene where Ben fakes a heart attack in a grocery store so his kids can steal food in the operation better known as Free the Food. This scene, while well done, just points out how misguided and wrong Ben is. By doing that, he is demonstrating that he is no better than all the greedy and entitled people he wanted to escape from. And that is just incorrect.
Each performance is great and it does feel real and it is realistic with the opening scene is disturbing as Bo kills a deer with a knife and his bare hands. Which is gross and he eats a piece of the raw meat. Which leads to the scene when one of the children asks Harper how she killed the chicken and she must explain that she bought it from a store. I hope they adjust well to regular school. Still, the film is a must-watch, proving just how strong family can be, when pushed. Grade: A-