Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman
There will always be something undeniably pleasing in Wes Anderson’s films. He may be main offender number one when it comes to reproducing the same style over and over–but the different views of one similar theme are inevitably interesting. Breaking bits of his mold Anderson uses the crux of young love as the backbone for story about the importance family/not being alone. Fans won’t be disappointed, though the cynics won’t be surprised
It’s 1965 (yes, an actual Wes Anderson movie with a definitive year!) and Scout Master Randy Ward (Edward Norton) has awoken to find his troubled Khaki scout (a fictional boy scout organization) Sam, has fled the camp site. Around the same time, Walt and Laura Bishop have realized their daughter Suzy has run away. After a chance meeting a year prior, Sam and Suzy (newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) secretly planned their escapes via an exchange of letters. Both confused and troubled twelve year old kids, they run away together hoping they find in each other, what they don’t receive from their superiors. As Suzy’s family, Sam’s troop, and one lonely sheriff search for the pair, a dangerous storm prepares to make landfall on New Penzance Island.
At this point, no one should be amazed this film has a slow start. Anderson has to introduce you to the new world he’s built his troubled fantasies in and establish each character. Once that’s all completed and the two young lovers finally meet, the entire affair speeds up. Like in previous features, Anderson injects blissfully ingenious sections into his stereotypically quirky formula. The montage illustrating the children’s communications to each other over the year before their escape is a whimsical journey through the freakishly un-childlike eyes of these protagonists. Anderson usually focuses on stunted adults who never had a real childhood. Here the formula is flipped but the characters and motives are the same. By shifting the paradigms through age, it opens a whole new door to what the writer/director is always searching for.
From presenting such young children as the film’s leads to pinpointing a specific time and year, Anderson opens up his realm of film making a bit. Most shocking of all though, this is the first Wes Anderson film that bluntly offers up an easy to decipher message. Book ended in the very first and very last minute by a recoding that explains how to build a symphony, Anderson (and co-writer Roman Coppola) lay a piece of paper in front of your face that reads, “Here’s what this story is about. Sit back and let it sink in.” It’s still hits the same points as his other films, but the spin this time is fascinating.
Containing some pretty frightening and creepy imagery at times; I’d like to see Anderson fully branch out and shed his eccentric skin in the future. I love his lush color palettes and his distinct brand of humor, but sooner rather than later–enough will be enough. That point hasn’t come yet though, and while Moonrise Kingdom is not a revolutionary work of art, it’s the haunting cello in Anderson’s every growing symphony of conventional, unconventional-ism.
Rating: 3 out of 5 ‘Staches
