[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:
Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom
Moonrise Kingdom is a story of a young boy scout living with foster parents and a young girl living in a dysfunctional family environment that, after sending letters back and forth, decide to run away together and live out their life on a secret cove on the edge of the small island on which they live, pleasantly named “Moonrise Kingdom”.
The story concerns their escape and life on the run for three days leading up to a horrendous storm that will tear apart their island, being followed by the boy’s scout master (Edward Norton), the local island police captain (Bruce Willis), the girl’s mother and father (Bill Murray, Frances McDormand) and the arrival of a social services representative (Tilda Swinton). (Though I was shocked to not see Owen Wilson included in the film, as he is an Anderson regular).
Moonrise Kingdom is something that I have been wanting to see for a very, very long time but never got around to. I’m not sure why it eluded me for so long, but I had a nagging urge yesterday to bite the bullet and jam it into my schedule, and so I finally got around to it. I love Anderson films, for all their quirkiness and artiness, there’s always something I can take out of it and really appreciate how the warped direction of Anderson leads to something especially entertaining and wonderfully unique.
Although this has all the pleasant awkwardness and eccentric character design and script of a Wes Anderson film, there is something surprisingly different that I couldn’t quite put my finger on the first time round, and perhaps still really can’t. Normally I have to watch Anderson films multiple times to actually come to appreciate it and understand it’s reasoning, and I held to that formula for this one, but I was shocked by the direction I ended up being pulled in. This is not typical Anderson, it is in a sense, but this emanates from an entirely different part of his humanity, and the end result was inspiring to say the least.
When I see an Anderson film, it takes me one viewing to get over it’s weirdness and twisted comedy, and then another to put that by and look for the distinct message Anderson’s trying to put across. I had to watch Moonrise Kingdom three times. I came in expecting strange and I got it, then I went back expecting some well-thought formulaic philosophy from my second time around, but I never found it. I was shocked, it seemed like the film had no real meaning to me, but on the third time I just moored away from my analyses and let the film run it’s course, and that’s when I began to understand.
This is not a film with a composed theory like Anderson’s other films, it does not so much concern the broken lives of cynical people nor the toil of dark themes as much as many before it, it is an expression of the heart and the blissful innocence of childhood creativity over monotonous adult-like formulation. I was thinking like an adult when I saw it the first two times, but for it to resonate I had to see it through a different lens, that of a child. The characters have their flaws and their regrets, but they come together to realise who they are and what they want in their search for love-stricken children and their spontaneous escape.
This film generates a magical sense of child-like wonder and innocence before the burden of adulthood takes form, and the characters themselves go from not understanding the reasoning of the children, to a gradual and heart-warming realisation towards the end. The adventure of the boy and girl (Sam and Suzy) in their quest for love and togetherness away from the oppression of their sheltered lives is particularly charming and is without doubt the major driving force in the emotional reward that comes from such a film.
While elegant and intelligently constructed from start to finish, Moonrise Kingdom leaves plenty of room to appreciate the creative endeavours of children and the optimistically exaggerated action-oriented adventures that grow from their minds. It is magnificent from the introduction to the closing moments and I regard the story as a precious interpretation of the happiness and naive awe for the world and all of it’s wonders that we forget we once had as society forces us to close ourselves back in to a mechanical and consistent life. It is something I had definitely forgotten, and Moonrise Kingdom was enough to break me back out before it became too late, for that, I owe this film.
Beyond the emotion and undefinable sense of purpose contained within Moonrise Kingdom, I would be remiss if I did not mention the absolutely mind-blowing direction and set production from Wes Anderson. The cast was brilliant in their roles and it was a delight to see such serious and respected actors take on such a strange and child-like work and really make something truly special out of it.
The older, veteran actors and the youths alike were equally astounding and really brought some colour to the script that may not have been there if it weren’t for Anderson’s vision and guidance. The characters were beautifully written and the location/set-pieces that Moonrise Kingdom is filmed in is a perfectly picturesque representation of the film’s powerfully bright demeanour. I adored the set and the cinematography, I believe it to be some of the best I’ve seen in quite a while. Even if I could not appreciate the film’s emotion the first two times, I remained constantly awe-stricken by the way it is filmed and regard that as one of the most impressive aspects of it.
The script and it’s awkward narrator were hilariously witty inclusions and are a real treat respective of Anderson’s style, which I can still find the time to swoon over. The score was incredible, absolutely incredible, and was a real treat to listen to, very well included in the scenes that it accompanies. The film also has some very admirable kind of story trivia, that I (as a fan of people like Hitchcock, Kubrick and Tarantino) absolutely adore. The major ones are Suzy’s books and their reflection of the mood and tone of the film as it progresses, and Suzy’s binoculars, that are a distinction of the lens that children see the world through and how it differs from the alternate interpretation of adults.
There are many more concerning the boy scouts, the character’s jobs, the play “Noye’s Fludde” and others that I will leave any interested in seeing it to find the meaning of for themselves. There are also some very pleasing references to films of old that I was delighted to see crop up.
All in all, this was a wonderfully charming expression of child-like wonder and naivete in an equally wondrous world and all it has to offer to the genuinely blissful and creative mind. This was a very meaningful expression of the shackled burdens carried by adults and the care-free, playful aura of children.
If you are a fan of Anderson’s eccentric style and vision, then you will find something in this film, something that may change you for the better indefinitely. I believe this may be one of the most beautifully constructed films I’ve seen this year, and I would recommend anyone willing to leave behind their cynicism of Anderson and logical apprehensions to see it as soon as possible.
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“You can touch my chest.”
