Moonrise Kingdom Review
Whimsically weird and delightful.
Wow that felt kind of pretentious and d-baggy to write. However, I can’t honestly think of a better way to describe this film. A story of young love as told in an innocent and surreal script set in 1965. And while it wouldn’t be one of my reviews without finding something in it for me to nit pick about, overall a very successful movie in my opinion.
Before I go any further I would also like to applaud director Wes Anderson for setting a film in the 60’s and not have the damned thing overrun by hippies. The whole “peace and love” movement culminating in the Summer of Love has so dominated the American perception of the 60’s that it is easy to forget that there were any number of cool cultural things going on that didn’t involve long hair and not bathing (I don’t really have a lot of images that are hippy related, but I did find this anti-hipster image from the Cheap T Shirt category that I think is really funny and actively support).
I would also like to mention that the camera work bordered on brilliant, and the editing really contributed to the flow and development of the movies (special props to Robert D. Yoeman for his camera work and Andrew Weisblum on the editing). Furthermore, the soundtrack was really well done (more props out to Alexadre Desplat). It is refreshing to see a movie that seems to have all the elements of the film working together in balance rather than dominating a couple and letting the rest follow along or rot on the vine.
The story is of young Sam (Jared Gilman-first movie credit) and Suzy (Kara Hayward-also first credit). Sam is a Khaki Scout deserter and Suzy his pen pal love interest. They meet up and run across a small New England island. They both have their emotional issues; Sam is an orphan with an eclectic perception of the world and Suzy is a troubled pre-teen with distant and uninvolved parents. (the cool thing about their issues, by the way, is that they are delivered in a very subtle manner over the passage of time rather than spoon fed to us an a plate). They met the year before at a church play. Sam is in his full Scout uniform while Suzy is dressed like a 60’s flight attendant, all in pink.
Sam is pursued by Scoutmaster Ward (Ed Norton-Fight Club, the Incredible Hulk, American History X) and the rest of his troop, all of whom despise him. This being the 60’s, Ward is constantly smoking and the boys in his troop are armed to the teeth. Suzy’s absence is noted by her parents Laura (Frances McDormand-Almost Famous, Burn After Reading, Tranformers Dark of the Moon) and Walt (the great Bill Murray-Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation, Ghostbusters). Each party contacts the local law enforcer Capt. Sharp (the also great Bruce Willis-Die Hard, the Sixth Sense, the Fifth Element) who starts running around the island looking for the kids. Meanwhile the two make their way across the island with the aid of Sam’s wilderness skills and Suzy’s girlish preparedness. The have been writing each other for a year and connect further through her love of fantasy novels involving unicorns and magic.
Eventually they are caught, and things are looking grim for orphan Sam. The story, which up until that point had progressed in a very linear manner fragments and the pacing ramps up considerably. Young love hijinks ensues. A storm strikes. No one turns out to be really bad, just sometimes uncaring.
The stars. Really cute, entrancing story. One star. Really well told and overall very good. Two stars. Brilliant camera and editing work. One star. Soundtrack was really good too (you know it has to be exceptional for me to even notice it). One star. Great performances from young Jared and Kara. I am sure we will see them in other things soon. One star. An amazing cast of great actors who all performed brilliantly. Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, and Ed Norton, all playing outside of their standard roles. Two stars. A nice call back to the non-hippy 60’s when kids were allowed to run around unsupervised and actually injure themselves. The Khaki Scout running around and attacking each other was pretty much exactly what being in the Boy Scouts in the 70’s was like. One star. The humor, while for the most part tongue in cheek, was brilliant and laugh worthy. Pretty much every shot had some kind of sight gag or cultural reference. One star. Dialog was extremely good. One star. Total: eleven stars.
The black holes. Not a lot, really. I found the sexualization of 12 year old Suzy and some of the scenes with Sam to be kind of off putting. Too much makeup, and a second base scene involving kids was something I found creepy and disturbing. I know it was supposed to remain an innocent love, but I found that one scene really drained a lot of the innocence away. One black hole. Normally in a movie of this nature I would find the pacing slow, but I think in this case it was 100% appropriate for the telling of the story. Total: one black hole.
A grand total of 10 stars. Absolutely you should see this movie if you like anything that is not dominated by explosions. It is really fun. Also this is a brilliant date movie. I think any girl would be turned on by having seen this film, so take a girl to a theater. Bathroom break? While none of the scenes in this film are truly necessary for the progression of the story the are almost all worth watching. I think your best bet would be the one with the Bishop parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) are lying in bed staring at the ceiling talking. No great camera work and not a lot that contributes to the whole of the story.
Thanks as always for reading. I also saw the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel yesterday and will try to write it up tonight. I am seeing Snow White and the Huntsman tonight so look for that one tomorrow. Follow me on Twitter @Nerdkungfu. Feel free to post comments on this film here, or if you have questions, suggestions, or comments on other topics feel free to email me at [email protected]. Talk to you soon.
Dave
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