If you’re expecting a superhero movie, think again. Instead, Viggo Mortensen plays a father of six children…a super hero of its own kind. When the film opens, the family lives in the Pacific Northwest, in a sort of primitive life meets THE LORD OF THE FLIES. They own deer-hunting knives and arrows, they’re covered in headgear and blood (from what they’ve killed – wild boar, bird, etc. for their supper,) their life is internet-free, they’re home schooled, and oh yes, even the 8 year old can recite the ‘Bill of Rights.’ Beyond that, the oldest son (George Mackay) has just been accepted for admission to every Ivy League. It appears Mortensen is raising six little child prodigies of the jungle!
So what’s wrong with this picture? They’re educated away from the corruption of the modern world? They’re well-loved? Is the problem society as we know it? Or maybe it’s that their mother has been missing for three months. She’s been hospitalized for a mental illness.
When she dies, the family decides to come back to civilization. Or perhaps they were in civilization all along? While being invited to live at the mansion of their maternal grandfather (Frank Langella) we get a glimpse into what life might have been for these children. When Langella – who is poised, poignant and lovingly parental in his performance – steals the show, we find ourselves in agreement to his desire to raise the children. Langella’s gentle decorum meets Mortensen’s grizzly bear sensitivity. Perhaps father doesn’t know best, but grandpa does.
This is the role Mortensen has certainly been waiting for, and this is the full frontal nudity of Mortensen you may have been waiting for, too.
All of your senses will come into play for this one. And your mind will play games. A story in the (albeit dramatic) quirkiness of Little Miss Sunshine. They even travel in an old bus. If little else it’s like nothing else you’ll see this year.
♕ ♚ ♛ 1/2