‘Moonrise Kingdom’ Review

Release Date: June 29, 2012 (Limited)
Director: Wes Anderson
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Film Pulse Score: 8/10

Moonrise Kingdom, the new Wes Anderson film, is everything you’ve heard and could expect.  It is fully symmetrical in every way, and tells a story that is too cute beyond belief.  The movie demonstrates a classical take on filmmaking, utilizing a soundtrack that is poignant and perfect.  It seems that every film Wes Anderson makes, he seems to make it just a little bit more “Wes Anderson-y”.  Moonrise Kingdom is no exception; this film is oozing with Anderson’s style and auteurism and still balances an engaging storyline.  Although most of the primary cast is children, the film still tackles adult themes and the ever-elusive concept of love.

Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward) are madly in love.  At a play at the local church, Sam sneaks into the dressing room to speak with a “raven”ous Suzy and the rest is history.  Over the next year, Sam and Suzy exchange letters from across the island they live on, filling each other in on details from their lives, getting to know one another more intimately than most people.  After planning an extensive escape, Sam and Suzy run away together, much to (what feels like) the rest of the islands dismay.

Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton), Walt Bishop (Bill Murry), and Frances McDormand (Laura Bishop) are all looking for the runaways for their own reasons.  Anderson uses the star power of Willis and Norton’s name, but he doesn’t have the biggest role.  This movie demands a deeper acting from Willis than the previous Die Hard movie and he shows that he can hang with the indie folks.  His affable island policeman is someone we grow to appreciate throughout the film.  Norton also demonstrates that well, he’s Edward Norton and he’s awesome in 99% of everything that he’s in (I dare you to argue, I double dare you).  Other actors that litter the always huge cast of Anderson movies are Harvey Keitel, Tilda Swinton, and of course, Jason Schwartzman.

After seeing this movie twice within a week, I still can’t find anything really wrong with it, unless you count Anderson’s actual style as problematic.  Ok, I’ll concede to that.  The only issue with this movie that I have is that it seems like Anderson is going through the motions of the process of making movies how he makes movies.  I’m not saying all of his films feel the same, but they obviously have similar qualities.  This was the first one that I was truly aware of them all and I’m hoping that this doesn’t happen with all of his newer films.  Being that this was the first Wes Anderson film I’ve seen in theaters, I hope that he isn’t over his hump and past his great moviemaking.