Remember when, in college, a friend of yours might have read Emerson or Thoreau, and they started talking loudly about moving into the wild and finding the authentic self? This movie explores what that might actually look like, if said friend went on to marry and have six kids. There is something both insufferable and charming about Ben's parenting style (played by Viggo Mortensen). He runs his kids through the woods, makes them do extensive calisthenic drills, climb mountains, recite great books, hunt, and--most importantly--reject mediocrity. While it gets tiresome listening to him drone on about the ills of capitalism and the downfall of mankind, you can see he loves his kids, and in turn, they have grown to be honest, well-read, considerate children.
When his wife dies, and he must return to society, the well-worn fish-out-of-water narrative begins, and the ending was hardly surprising (no spoilers here). Still, it was an interesting exploration of how any ideology, when drawn out to it's natural conclusion, will ultimately fail under scrutiny. Similarly, it makes a compelling argument for allowing children access to the harsher aspects of reality, like death, sex, and politics.
Viggo Mortensen was great; the cast of kids, most of whom I don't remember seeing in anything, were great; the movie was predictable and gave a much happier ending than I would have thought Ben's ideology would have allowed, but all in all, I rather enjoyed it.
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