A film
review by James Berardinelli, for ReelViews.net, on June 5, 2012.
Few
working directors are as consistently, dependably quirky as Wes Anderson, whose films tend to
excite art house audiences while being ignored and bypassed by mainstream
movie-goers. His latest, Moonrise Kingdom,
represents one of his best, in large part because it tones down some of the
more abstruse elements of his style in favor of greater accessibility and
stronger character identification. One knock against some of Anderson's
previous efforts is that they're too clever - so clever, in fact, that the
humanity gets sucked out of them. That doesn't happen here. Moonrise Kingdom is lovingly crafted
with an attention to detail that is breathtaking while, at the same time, it
displays genuine affection for its young protagonists, reserving any cynicism
for the adults, who can be said to more closely resemble typical Anderson characters.
Few
things in life are more urgent and transcendent than a pre-teen romance
embarked upon at a time before sexual desire has crystallized beyond a vague
curiosity and love is a term for
which true meaning remains elusive. The writers of Moonrise Kingdom, Wes
Anderson and Ramon Coppola, have
excellent memories. Both are in their 40s (Coppola was born in 1965, Anderson
in 1969) yet they have brought this story to the screen through the eyes of
12-year olds. Therein lies the movie's route to success; it gets us to remember
our youth and imagine how things might have been for us in these circumstances.
The movie's innate innocence springs from its adoption of this viewpoint. And
it builds the perspective by subtle cues and easy-to-miss details that feed
directly into the viewer's subconscious.
Neither
Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) nor Suzy
Bishop (Kara Hayward) could be
described as normal or well-adjusted. Both are whip-smart and
headstrong. Sam is an orphan who has become such a tribulation to his foster
parents that he is not being invited back after spending his summer at a Boy
Scout camp on a New England island. Suzy, a resident of the appropriately-named
Summer's End corner of the island, is the bane of her family; her parents have
bought a how-to book about coping with a troubled
child. In each other, however, they have found a soul-mate, so they do what
soul mates often do: run away together. The fly in the ointment, so to speak,
is their age. They want to get married, but they don't have a license, lack
parental permission, and fail to meet the minimum age requirement allowed by
law. Not that such things make much difference to them.
The
sense of time and place couldn't be more forcefully presented. The year is 1965
and the location is a sparsely-populated island off the New England coast.
Anderson has elected to shoot the movie much as it might have been made during
the '60s, and it is suffused with a warm, sepia tinge - the color of nostalgia.
The camera prefers tracking shots to close-ups and passes through walls to
offer a cross-section of a house where some of the action transpires. Local
history is provided via Bob Balaban
who functions as a narrator, offering the kinds of observations one might find
in a promotional period short. There's an undeniable tongue-in-cheek element to
this but it serves its purpose.
The
concept of young love is certainly not unique, but the tact employed by
Anderson is. The leads are likeable and appealing but each possesses offbeat
distinguishing traits. Suzy is never without her binoculars and Sam had taken
up pipe smoking. Their physical and emotional ages might be 12, but they are
smarter than most of the adults they encounter - a fact explicitly acknowledged
by one in a moment of candor. They share a scene that is equal parts tenderness
and awkwardness - a first kiss, a first grope, a first acknowledgment of
arousal. Moonrise Kingdom is never
salacious and sex is never much of an issue. Intimacy between the leads while
they are on their own means reading to one another and absorbing the adventure
of being in the wilderness without supervision. Sam and Suzy claim to have
found love with each other; what they
have discovered, in fact, is friendship - something neither has experience
with.
Roughly
half the running time is devoted to following the journey of Sam and Suzy as
they wander from one dubious milestone to another on what is not a very large
island. Their misadventures are interwoven with the efforts of adults to find
them. These include Suzy's parents, Walt and Laura Bishop (Bill Murray and Frances
McDormand); the scout master in charge of Sam's troop, Ward (Edward Norton); and the local head of
police, Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis).
Later in the film, there are appearances by several other recognizable faces: Tilda Swinton as the local
representative of Social Services, Jason
Schwartzman as a helpful scout leader; and Harvey Keitel as the hard-assed commander of all scouts.
Anderson
should be credited for casting two excellent unknowns in their first major film
roles. Both Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman become their characters, exhibiting
none of the stiltedness and uncertainty that sometimes accompanies neophytes.
Their performances are natural; their chemistry is immediate and unforced.
During the scenes when they alone occupy the screen, we see the world through
their eyes without the distracting filter of an adult perspective. In a
turnaround not unexpected from Anderson, it's the adults who come across as
immature and silly.
Moonrise Kingdom reminded me a little of A Bridge to Terabithia, although the
tones are different. The magical realism of the earlier film is barely hinted
at here, and Moonrise Kingdom is more
comedy than fantasy or drama. Both films, however, are founded on a strong
connection between children of the opposite sex; that affection provides
viewers with an easy point of entry. Of course, this being a Wes Anderson film,
the comedy is often a little off-kilter, frequently deadpan, and rarely of the
laugh-aloud, roll-on-the-floor variety. The movie is funny in an intellectual,
low-key manner, but it is not as obscure or obtuse as that which defined The Darjeeling Limited or The Royal Tenenbaums. With Moonrise Kingdom, Anderson has blended
the strengths evident in his past endeavors with a well-constructed,
emotionally resonant story. The result is a pleasing 90 minute idyll.
Labels:
comedy, drama, fantasy, romance, Sixties
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