In Moonrise Kingdom the latest film from director Wes Anderson he has made his setting an island. Wes’s island correlates closely to his own position as a unique filmmaker who exists outside the American mainstream with his distinctly individual visual style, dialogue and cast. On Wes’s island he has created a film that is visually and stylistically his best work whilst executing softer and more gentle themes surrounding a love story between a young boy Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward).
Moonrise Kingdom is a love story about Sam and Suzy who attempt to flee their New England town and begin their own lives off shore. As the two run away together their disappearance causes the local scout search party headed by Edward Norton and police investigation headed by Bruce Willis to branch out and find them. Bill Murray and Frances McDormand feature as Suzy’s bored and brutally out of love parents whilst Tilda Swinton is Social Services come to take Sam (an orphan) to a juvenile detention centre.
A number of new faces feature in this film and in particular it is Edward Norton as Scout Master Ward and Bruce Willis as Captain Sharp who give brilliant comedic performances whilst retaining a sadness and certain amount of vulnerability to their characters, almost as if they were merely big children. Wes has pulled together a fine group of young boy scouts and each young actor particularly Lucas Hedges as Redford and Gabriel Rush as Skotak effortlessly adopt Wes’s sharp and sarcastic dialogue.
This film is a comedy more than it is a dramatic love story. The quick banter between the young boy scouts and the mature wit of Sam and Suzy offer moments of relief outside the battered world of adults that Wes has simultaneously presented. These tragic moments between Bill Murray and Frances McDormand seem second rate to the younger, precocious characters who are doing things as they want, outside the standards of sad, rational adulthood. This is also reflected between the young scouts who form as a more capable method of force than the older police. However, Sam and Suzy’s plight retains a joyful innocence and nothing gets too Tenenbaums heavy. Wes softens his themes of family drama through his younger characters whilst Edward Norton’s character forms as a constant reminder to reminisce on the whimsical pleasantries of an untainted childhood, he possesses a longing for this phase in our lives and attempts to relive it through his scout responsibilities.
Everything on this island is uniquely Wes Anderson and he proves that he is worthy of a Ghibli Museum equivalent. Wes continues to exert his visual style through his use of saturated primary colours, contrived settings and witty dialogue. Furthermore, he continues with his slow motion sequences and panning shots and even features a couple of zoom shots that work brilliantly and add to the 60s vibe of this film. All of these conventions have been perfected in Moonrise Kingdom and the film itself officially positions Wes as a masterful director who will go down in cinematic history.
Wes’s soundtrack adopts beatifically romantic, ironically dramatic songs that transport us back to the 60’s and Bob Balaban’s narrating is very funny and reflective of the chorus from Romeo and Juliet. Moonrise Kingdom may not be able to be taken too seriously but it will more than satisfy viewers with its comedy and exquisite visuals.
By Georgina Wills.
Filmbluff 