This showed up in my recommended video selections on Amazon Prime. It's currently streaming on Starz. I'm guessing Prime suggested this movie because of the EMP survivalist series I purchased in my Kindle Reader. Regardless of how the movie was selected, it caught my attention and I thoroughly enjoyed this film.
The Story is about a man who decided to raise his family off grid in a remote wilderness location in Washington State. His children are home schooled and absolutely brilliant in both education and the arts. Not only are they smart but they can also survive comfortably in the harsh environment they call their home. They can hunt, fish, farm and defend themselves.
Due to a family tragedy, the family has to uproot their lives and join society again. They hop in the family bus that is converted into a mobile home and head to their relatives who are "normal" citizens living their lives like the rest of us.
That's the basic plot. I don't want to give away many spoilers here so I'll leave it at that. The film is a drama / comedy and you can imagine how our eclectic and lovable protagonists fit into society. They don't wear the latest fashions, they don't have smart phones, and for the most part they're simply living in the moment. This makes for some heartfelt comedy and thought provoking entertainment.
Some Thoughts
I love movies that make you think and that's exactly what this movie does. Here's a small spoiler but sets the tone for the movie. As they start out on their journey the family pulls into a truck stop in their bus / mobile home, they're sitting in a diner waiting to order some food. The 8 yr old daughter who was born in the wilderness looks up to her father with a sad look on her face and asks, paraphrasing, not a direct quote, "Daddy are all these people sick?"
The father looks at the girl puzzled and says, "No I don't think so. Why would you think that?"
"Why are they all fat?" she asks seriously.
The camera pans across the truck stop and almost every person in the restaurant is at least 50 lbs over weight.
IMHO this movie not only makes you think but also makes you ask some hard questions while giving you a good chuckle from time to time.
It raises questions about the food we eat or what passes as food these days, our education system and the direction we're currently heading in as a society. Would we all be better off taking a couple steps backs?
Could you do it? Drop everything and live in the middle of nowhere. No rulers, complete freedom and left to fend for yourself. Could you grow and hunt your own food? Could you live without any modern technology? No TV, no smart phone, no creature comforts, no processed foods. Could you rely solely on the company of your family?
Another question I had to ask myself, although the children were taught to think for themselves, I couldn't help but think that they were indoctrinated into the father's way of thinking who's ideology borders anarchist. However at one point it is pointed out that the children have their own ideas on governments and political ideologies.
I really enjoyed both the subject matter and story line of this film. This film has a run time of 1 hour 58 minutes and an IMDb rating of 7.9. I loved this movie a lot and will probably watch it again down the road.