**Some major spoiler action**
While a liberal fantasy about a father, Ben (Viggo Mortensen, "Far From Men," "Lord Of the Rings" trilogy), with no filter, raising his eclectic brood of six in the North woods may cause a great majority of film critics to go into hysterics, it's as a pompous and pretentious an exhibition ever put on film.
Self-styled intellectual movie reviewers (many of whom probably feel the same way about the general movie-going public as Mortensen's character feels about everyone) are falling all over themselves to honor a man whose mentally ill wife commits suicide-partially because of Ben's isolationist, environmental, elitist lifestyle.
Let's face it, Ben is an overbearing douche-bag with no redeeming qualities, whatsoever, and we the audience have to sit through and digest a film which concludes with the theft of a dead body and a terrible rendition of Guns N Roses' "Sweet Child Of Mine."
This was truly one of THE worst movies of 2016, with no exceptions. We are introduced to the family when the oldest of six bizarrely-named children, Bodevan (George MacKay, "Private Peaceful"), kills a deer with his bare hands, while Ben makes him eat the heart to become a man. The movie then proceeds to go downhill from there, if that's even anywhere conceivable.
Since he says what on his mind and seemingly does not care what comes out of his mouth (diplomacy and tact are definitely NOT in his vocabulary), we have to listen to him pontificate on how America is an evil corporate entity and hear his robotic children echo the same left-wing claptrap over and over again.
In addition, he forces them to run through the forest, climbs rock faces and glaciers, steal food, insult people, talk back to their elders, disrespect people who do not agree with their bohemian lifestyle and to just be obnoxious brats.
They then find out that their mother committed suicide after being institutionalized, but Ben is told by his angry father-in-law (the eternally angry Frank Langella (Academy Award- nominated for "Frost-Nixon") not to show up. But of course, since it's in the script and we need to see the family outside of their mountainside hermitage, the troupe makes the trek to New Mexico in a school bus stolen from the "Partridge Family" TV show.
En route, they rip off a grocery store (while dad fakes a heart attack); go into a restaurant, sit down, receive menus and the abruptly leave when they discover that food is served there; outwit a redneck policeman and show Ben stepping off the bus totally naked (although he later sports an equally offensive "Jesse Jackson 88" shirt - who helped co-write this nonsense, Al Gore?)
There is also no shame in this guy as he tells a 6-year old girl about intercourse (even giving her the book, "Joy Of Sex") and lectures his nephews on how smart his children are compared to them and their dopey parents (if I wanted to be condescended to by leftist morons, I'd simply watch CNN or MSNBC or any of the major networks' newscasts).
He also forces his offspring to celebrate the birthday of liberal socialist writer, Noam Chomsky. Few children have ANY idea WHO Chomsky is, but to prove the leftist leanings of the film's writer/director, Matt Ross ("28 Hotel Rooms"), it's a major part of the film. The kids are even given dangerous knives and other weapons to "celebrate" the occasion.
Then, when one of the children questions this stupidity, the father shames him into arguing intellectually against "Noam Chomsky Day" (hey, Matt, I could give you about 50 reasons, but no one asked my opinion).
None of these ludicrous activities evidently seem to cause ANYONE to blink an eye, but the crazed Ben finally goes overboard when he crashes the funeral, stands up and does a comedy routine (left-leaning comedians are NOT funny and neither is this blather) and tells everyone that his late wife was a Buddhist and wanted to be cremated (instead of buried).
Finally, the father-in-law (as well as all of us) has had enough and calls security. Told in no uncertain terms that he will NOT be welcome to the interment ceremony. In the meantime, Bodevan has been accepted to every Ivy League college in existence, yet cannot even make simple conversation with anyone outside of his family and Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton, "Strangerland"), who breaks his hand while rock climbing in the rain, tells his father he hates him and wants to live with his wealthy, stable grandparents (finally, one of the children sees the light).
Motivated by this, the grandfather files for custody of the children so they might have a safe, normal life. Unfortunately, one of the non-descript teenage daughters tries to "rescue" the boy, falls off the roof and sustains serious injury, but once again, there are absolutely no consequences for this addled, horrible, neglectful parent.
Worst yet, the children run away with this jerk and then they break into a cemetery, steal their mother's corpse and roasting it on a pile of logs. OK, I know I am writing WAY too much into this, but the logistics of a group of children digging up a body and removing it are staggering. Graves are dug with backhoes and most caskets are buried in concrete vaults to keep water and other material out.
It takes these morons about two minutes to complete a task which would literally take hours. Much will also be made of the fact that Mortensen earned his second Academy Award nomination (his first was for "Eastern Promises" in 2007) for playing Ben. If pure hatred of a character is motivation for such an honor, then he deserves the statuette hands down. Grade: F
While a liberal fantasy about a father, Ben (Viggo Mortensen, "Far From Men," "Lord Of the Rings" trilogy), with no filter, raising his eclectic brood of six in the North woods may cause a great majority of film critics to go into hysterics, it's as a pompous and pretentious an exhibition ever put on film.
Self-styled intellectual movie reviewers (many of whom probably feel the same way about the general movie-going public as Mortensen's character feels about everyone) are falling all over themselves to honor a man whose mentally ill wife commits suicide-partially because of Ben's isolationist, environmental, elitist lifestyle.
Let's face it, Ben is an overbearing douche-bag with no redeeming qualities, whatsoever, and we the audience have to sit through and digest a film which concludes with the theft of a dead body and a terrible rendition of Guns N Roses' "Sweet Child Of Mine."
This was truly one of THE worst movies of 2016, with no exceptions. We are introduced to the family when the oldest of six bizarrely-named children, Bodevan (George MacKay, "Private Peaceful"), kills a deer with his bare hands, while Ben makes him eat the heart to become a man. The movie then proceeds to go downhill from there, if that's even anywhere conceivable.
Since he says what on his mind and seemingly does not care what comes out of his mouth (diplomacy and tact are definitely NOT in his vocabulary), we have to listen to him pontificate on how America is an evil corporate entity and hear his robotic children echo the same left-wing claptrap over and over again.
In addition, he forces them to run through the forest, climbs rock faces and glaciers, steal food, insult people, talk back to their elders, disrespect people who do not agree with their bohemian lifestyle and to just be obnoxious brats.
They then find out that their mother committed suicide after being institutionalized, but Ben is told by his angry father-in-law (the eternally angry Frank Langella (Academy Award- nominated for "Frost-Nixon") not to show up. But of course, since it's in the script and we need to see the family outside of their mountainside hermitage, the troupe makes the trek to New Mexico in a school bus stolen from the "Partridge Family" TV show.
En route, they rip off a grocery store (while dad fakes a heart attack); go into a restaurant, sit down, receive menus and the abruptly leave when they discover that food is served there; outwit a redneck policeman and show Ben stepping off the bus totally naked (although he later sports an equally offensive "Jesse Jackson 88" shirt - who helped co-write this nonsense, Al Gore?)
There is also no shame in this guy as he tells a 6-year old girl about intercourse (even giving her the book, "Joy Of Sex") and lectures his nephews on how smart his children are compared to them and their dopey parents (if I wanted to be condescended to by leftist morons, I'd simply watch CNN or MSNBC or any of the major networks' newscasts).
He also forces his offspring to celebrate the birthday of liberal socialist writer, Noam Chomsky. Few children have ANY idea WHO Chomsky is, but to prove the leftist leanings of the film's writer/director, Matt Ross ("28 Hotel Rooms"), it's a major part of the film. The kids are even given dangerous knives and other weapons to "celebrate" the occasion.
Then, when one of the children questions this stupidity, the father shames him into arguing intellectually against "Noam Chomsky Day" (hey, Matt, I could give you about 50 reasons, but no one asked my opinion).
None of these ludicrous activities evidently seem to cause ANYONE to blink an eye, but the crazed Ben finally goes overboard when he crashes the funeral, stands up and does a comedy routine (left-leaning comedians are NOT funny and neither is this blather) and tells everyone that his late wife was a Buddhist and wanted to be cremated (instead of buried).
Finally, the father-in-law (as well as all of us) has had enough and calls security. Told in no uncertain terms that he will NOT be welcome to the interment ceremony. In the meantime, Bodevan has been accepted to every Ivy League college in existence, yet cannot even make simple conversation with anyone outside of his family and Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton, "Strangerland"), who breaks his hand while rock climbing in the rain, tells his father he hates him and wants to live with his wealthy, stable grandparents (finally, one of the children sees the light).
Motivated by this, the grandfather files for custody of the children so they might have a safe, normal life. Unfortunately, one of the non-descript teenage daughters tries to "rescue" the boy, falls off the roof and sustains serious injury, but once again, there are absolutely no consequences for this addled, horrible, neglectful parent.
Worst yet, the children run away with this jerk and then they break into a cemetery, steal their mother's corpse and roasting it on a pile of logs. OK, I know I am writing WAY too much into this, but the logistics of a group of children digging up a body and removing it are staggering. Graves are dug with backhoes and most caskets are buried in concrete vaults to keep water and other material out.
It takes these morons about two minutes to complete a task which would literally take hours. Much will also be made of the fact that Mortensen earned his second Academy Award nomination (his first was for "Eastern Promises" in 2007) for playing Ben. If pure hatred of a character is motivation for such an honor, then he deserves the statuette hands down. Grade: F
