Review: Moonrise Kingdom

This film compelled me from the very first scene and kept me interested until the very last frame. It is not mainstream, typical or high concept but it is entertaining, funny and charming. I must say my favorite scene was the first shot as Leonard Bernstein’s “The Young People’s Guide Orchestra Op. 34” plays as the cast consisting of a family with one girl and three boys go about their morning. It builds and lowers in all the right places synching up with the characters on screen. This story is a sweet one of two young people who met briefly, wrote each other for a while and then decided to run away together. The boy, Sam, is in Boy Scouts and the girl, Suzy, both around 11 or 12 have difficult relationships with their parents or lack thereof. They relate on that level and ultimately fall in love while running away from their troop and parents. I loved all the actors in this film Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman all played excellent parts as the adults who in retrospect should be the responsible ones however, in this film the children are more responsible and level headed than the adults. Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward who play Sam and Suzy do a wonderful job of playing children who are innocent enough to believe in the future and what it holds yet mature enough to realize the feelings they have for one another.

This was directed by Wes Anderson who filmed it like it was a play, with the actors moving within the frame as opposed to the camera moving along with the actors which I thought really added to the feel of the film. Now this movie is not for everyone because it is quite quirky and strange but in the best possible way. It is funny in the situations they are put into as well as the interactions between characters. My favorite character had to be Cousin Ben (Jason Schwartzman) who marries Suzy and Sam though its a fake marriage (obviously) but before he goes through with the fake marriage he grills them on why they want to get married so young even though its not a real marriage. The banter back and forth in that along with the irony of their dialogue and actions had to be the funniest scene in my opinion. Though this is not going to be the most popular movie of 2012, it is definitely worth watching because it is heartfelt, the problems between the parents are real and its a simple story something I think Hollywood needs to get back to. So if you’re looking for something funny, charming and a little bit off the wall I’d highly recommend this one.
-Molli