In this energetic and touching dramedy, Viggo Mortensen kids his own image, playing an anarcho-survivalist solo dad. In a remote Washington state forest, he’s raising his six children to be super-fit in body and mind. These mini philosopher kings are equally confident stalking a deer, skinning it, critiquing Lolita, Middlemarch and The Brothers Karamazov, or improvising a musical jamboree around the campfire. Santa Claus is a joke, but they do get festive for Noam Chomsky’s birthday, when there could be no better present than a new boning knife. 

This idyll of off-the-grid existence is challenged when their mother dies in a New Mexico hospital. The long road trip to rescue her from the Christian funeral planned by her conservative parents may well remind you of Little Miss Sunshine. The kids are confronted for the first time with ‘normal’ American life. They’ve never seen fat people before. But nor have they seen their father subjected to the onslaught of criticism coming from his in-laws. The fantastic dad is obliged to defend his rigorous regime – and the film’s register moves from affectionate satire to a more heart-tugging evocation of the joys and pitfalls of education.

Captain Fantastic

USA 2016 
119 mins
CinemaScope/DCP

Director/Screenplay: Matt Ross

Producers: Lynette Howell Taylor, Jamie Patricof, Shivani Rawat, Monica Levinson

Photography: Stéphane Fontaine

Editor: Joseph Krings

Production designer: Russell Barnes

Costume designer: Courtney Hoffman

Music: Alex Somers

With: Viggo Mortensen (Ben), Frank Langella (Jack), George MacKay (Bo), Samantha Isler (Kielyr), Annalise Basso (Vespyr), Nicholas Hamilton (Rellian), Shree Crooks (Zaja), Charlie Shotwell (Nai), Ann Dowd (Abigail), Erin Moriarty (Claire), Missi Pyle (Ellen), Kathryn Hahn (Harper), Steve Zahn (Dave)

Festivals: Sundance, Cannes (Un Certain Regard) 2016

Awards: Best Director (Un Certain Regard), Cannes Film Festival 2016

For tickets and details about films at other venues, please visit the New Zealand International Film Festival website.