THE FANTASTICKS
An enchanting musical romance with one brief bawdy interruption.
Should You Watch It?
You should see The Fantasticks if you want a beautiful, tuneful romance that understands love as something deeper than youthful excitement. Set in the rural landscape of 1920s Arizona, the movie surrounds its young lovers with famous melodies, fantasy, wistfulness and a hard-won emotional maturity.
The film’s central idea is that heartbreak can deepen love. Its melancholy does not cancel the happy ending; it gives that happiness weight. The scenery is easy on the eyes, and the voices of Jean Louisa Kelly, Joe McIntyre and Jonathan Morris complement the songs beautifully.
There is one brief bawdy carnival scene that keeps the movie from being quite family friendly. For older children and adults, the answer is clear: take the trip, with that moment in mind.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESIn 1920s Arizona, Luisa and Matt are young neighbors drawn into a secret romance. When a traveling carnival arrives, they go looking for romance and adventure amid its performers, magic and fantasy.
Their journey gradually changes how they understand one another and what love requires. What begins as youthful excitement becomes a deeper, wiser love.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is a thoroughly enjoyable movie with considerable charm. Director Michael Ritchie takes a wistful approach to the story’s happy ending, creating a feeling of nostalgia and yearning that lingers.
The rural landscapes are magnificent and enhance the movie’s theme of reality and fantasy colliding. Kelly, McIntyre and Morris have wonderful voices that complement the famous melodies. McIntyre’s acting is not quite up to the level of Kelly’s and Morris’s, but the movie’s musical and visual pleasures remain strong.
The Worldview
The Fantasticks presents a romantic worldview with moral elements. It treats fantasy and reality as forces that collide, and it argues that love becomes deep and lasting only after someone has endured heartbreak of some kind. The story also alludes to the Prodigal Son and to themes involving lust and repentance.
That understanding of love contains an important truth: lasting affection is more than excitement, and suffering can expose the shallowness of our first ideas about romance. The movie’s happy ending is colored by melancholy and regret, suggesting that mature love is wiser because it has been tested.
The film does not present its themes within an explicitly biblical framework, but its allusion to the Prodigal Son points toward a story Scripture uses to show repentance, welcome and restoration. “He was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Romantic worldview with moral elements, including allusion to the Prodigal Son story in the New Testament; 2 mild obscenities & 3 mild exclamatory profanities; slapstick violence & men wrestle & battle with swords; no sex but prodigal son theme & allusions to lust of the eyes & rape; upper female nudity on stage prop while man gives a lascivious leer; alcohol use; man is drugged; and, fathers conspire to have man pretend to abduct young woman so that her lover can save her & become the hero in her eyes.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The young lovers begin with an idealized view of romance. How can hardship reveal whether love is genuine?
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 · James 1:2–4The film connects love with the experience of heartbreak. How can God use painful experiences to deepen wisdom without making us bitter?
Romans 5:3–5 · Hebrews 12:11The story alludes to the Prodigal Son. What does the parable teach about returning, repentance and welcome?
Luke 15:11–24Where do fantasy and reality collide in the way people view romance today? How can Scripture help us see love truthfully?
Philippians 4:8 · Ephesians 5:25The Final Word
The Fantasticks is a beautiful, tuneful and wistful romance with a mature understanding of love. One brief bawdy scene requires discernment, especially for younger children, but older children and adults can enjoy its many charms. Our answer is WORTH THE TRIP — OLDER CHILDREN AND ADULTS.
