To you, he will probably always be Aragorn from ‘Lord of the Rings’. To me, he’s always Lalin, the pretty boy pimp snitch from ‘Carlito’s Way’. Either way, Viggo Mortensen has built a hell of a career, and ‘Captain Fantastic’ is a worthy Oscar nomination for a solid character actor who’s good looking enough to jump to leading man status in the right films.
A ‘Wes Anderson film’ in a year where we didn’t actually get a Wes Anderson film, Viggo plays the hippie patriarch of a free spirited family, raising six kids outside the standards and norms of society. But when his wife dies, Ben (Viggo) treks his family out of the forest and back to civilization to attend their mother’s funeral. Against the explicit wishes of his father in law (a great Frank Langella). Missi Pyle, Kathryn Hahn, and Steve Zahn round out a murderer’s row of an indie film class.
Funny, quirky, sad and thoughtful; this was more than I thought it would be and a fun watch. Recommend.