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There's nothing like sharing a movie with six precocious kids to force an actor to step up his game — which is what Viggo Mortensen does in "Captain Fantastic," a funny and moving comedy-drama about an unconventional family forced to face convention.
Mortensen plays Ben, who is raising his six children off the grid, deep in the forests of Washington state. Ben leads the kids through daily calisthenics, rock climbing, hand-to-hand combat practice, deer hunting (with knives and bows) and nightly readings of Karl Marx, George Eliot and Vladimir Nabokov.
It's the sort of family where the oldest son, Bodevan (George MacKay), angrily corrects his father, "I'm not a Trotskyist, I'm a Maoist" — and where Dad must remind the youngest, Nai (Charlie Shotwell), that clothing must be worn at dinner.
On one of their regular visits to the nearby town, Ben calls his sister-in-law Harper (Kathryn Hahn) and gets the bad news that his wife, Leslie (Trin Miller), has died. Leslie, a manic-depressive who has spent the past three months in a mental facility near her parents, slit her wrists — information Ben does not hesitate in sharing with their kids.
When Ben learns that Leslie's parents want a Catholic funeral followed by a burial — against Leslie's wishes as a Buddhist — he decides to take the family to the ceremony in Albuquerque. He does this despite the threat from Leslie's father, Jack (Frank Langella), to have him arrested if he shows up at the church.
This impromptu road trip, on a refurbished school bus they call Steve, turns out to be eye-opening for the kids. They experience such things as fast food, supermarkets and video games for the first time. Bodevan, who has been hiding his letters of acceptance to several elite colleges, even gets his first kiss. But Ben soon realizes that while his kids are sharper and smarter than most, his brand of education isn't preparing them for the real world of consumer capitalism and pop-culture saturation.
Writer-director Matt Ross (an actor familiar to fans of "Big Love" and "Silicon Valley") has a flair for whimsical narrative and finds plenty of humor in the quirky upbringing these kids treat as normal — whether it's "liberating" food from a supermarket or singing songs in honor of Noam Chomsky Day.
Mortensen brings a well-grounded authenticity to Ben, a dad able to find a teaching moment in any situation, while also coping with his wife's death and the imminent confrontation with her disapproving family.
But it's the kids — from oldest to youngest: MacKay, Samantha Isler, Annalise Basso, Nicholas Hamilton, Shree Crooks and Shotwell — and their perfectly calibrated chemistry, with each other and with Mortensen, that bring the heart and soul to "Captain Fantastic." They come off looking like a real, if giddily offbeat, family from the first moment to the last.
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'Captain Fantastic'
A family living off the grid must meet civilization head-on in this offbeat comedy-drama.
Where • Broadway Centre Cinemas.
When • Opens Friday, July 22.
Rating • R for language and brief graphic nudity.
Running time • 119 minutes.