Splatter: on FILM

Captain Fantastic is just that: fantastic. But beware, it’s emotionally raw, bravely honest, and a little too personal for anyone who has dealt with real loss. Days later I’m still reeling, stopped in my tracks by moments of both pain and healing that I witnessed there in the woods and on the road with this family.Viggo Mortensen, perfectly cast, plays drill sergeant hippie Von Trapp to his tribe of children that he is raising in the Pacific Northwest woods. In the opening shots, his eldest son proves his manhood by killing a deer for food as camouflaged family members step out of the forest to cheer him on. They eat, sing, read, run, and train together daily from vigorous athletic routines and mountain climbing to gardening and essential yurt maintenance. Daily studies include literature, religion, and philosophy. The children are kind, hearty, smart, gifted individuals who grieve just like everyone else in the world when they learn of their mother’s suicide.This film is exquisitely unique showing the many sides of grief in a single brilliant brazen family from the backwoods. While some may watch and say, “what an interesting indie,” others will re-grieve any sorrows they’ve set aside and now find that they have company in saying goodbye.