A fiercely original, pleasantly unpredictable character piece. This is a gang of outsiders with something valuable to say about the world we live in.
A road movie with heart, humour and a lead prepared to give his youthful co-stars their share of the limelight.
Might best be described as a family movie with very sharp claws.
Mortensen stars as a survivalist dad who takes his kids to the woods to teach them authenticity in this low-cal take on The Mosquito Coast.
An entertaining, soft-centred salute to the joys and agonies of rugged individualism.
What follows has moments of sweetness and a couple of interesting exchanges that skirt around some of the darker edges of the set-up, but in the end there’s not enough depth to buy into the premise or its Hollywood ending.
Viggo Mortensen leads an outstanding cast as a grizzled rural eccentric who hits the road with his brood of home-schooled, off-grid children.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Sunday October 9, 2016, until Thursday October 13, 2016. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com