Review of Captain Fantastic

Captain Fantastic is a beautifully filmed, moving story. But as much as I enjoyed watching it, it left a bad aftertaste. It pretends sympathy for the lifestyle choices of the main character, who brings up his children in the wild, teaching them both survival skills and a critical attitude towards capitalist, consumerist America. However, in the confrontation with this modern and consumerist society, he is in the end forced to admit that it was all a bit of a mistake, and that it was not in the interest of his children to educate them like that. Wherever your ideological sympathies may lie, this film manipulates the viewer badly. The Cash family, in the end, are some kind of caricature in their extremism. So the movie ends up trying to convince the viewer that turning one's back on this society, even though it is far from flawless, is a very bad idea. And this, after having first pretended great sympathy with the Cash family's lifestyle. What makes all of this worse is that it's very easy to take the film at first degree, and only see its insincere criticism of consumerist society. "A film that really makes you think", people will coo, without paying much attention to the fact that in the end all this reflection is rejected, thus making it easy for the viewer not to be challenged in their ideas at all. Additionally, what makes it a story badly told is that we do not really get to know the mother at all, apart from her last wishes, and the suggestion that the choice for the wilderness was made in the hope that it would help her recover her mental health. Why, crucially, did she at some point believe that her parents should "rescue" her from the wilderness (and her husband), why did she change her mind, and most importantly why was it decided that she ought to be hospitalised? How can this be a story about choices that parents have to confront if the mother's perspective is missing? See this film if you must: it does have beautiful scenery, beautiful and convincing actors, and very comical moments. But prepare to feel manipulated.