Review No.86: Moonrise Kingdom

A trip up to see my Manchester-based friend resulted in a cinema trip to Corner House, my sixth cinema this year if you're keeping track, the film was the latest from Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom. Though I have a love of Anderson's films, particularly his eye for detail in designing the main sets, however I've often found his characters emotionally alienating due to their awkward nature. That is not the case however with Moonrise Kingdom partly I think due to the fact the central characters, 12 year olds Suzy Bishop and Sam Shakusky, are strange runaways who are yet to be truly emotionally scarred by the parental figures in their life. Of the two Suzy's life is the most fraught thanks to the fact that her lawyer parents, played by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand, are sleeping in separate beds while her mother continues an affair with Bruce Willis' melancholic police sheriff. Rather than distancing herself emotionally I felt that Suzy tried to distance herself physically looking down on the town using a pair of binoculars which she later describes as her super-power. Music also plays an important part in the Bishop house as demonstrated through a record player owned by one of her brothers on which the family listen to Benjamin Britten's Young Persons' Guide to the Orchestra while she herself prefers the music of Francoise Hardy. After no longer being able to stand life in her house she takes the record player along with several other items and runs away eventually running into escaped scout Sam. Sam is another lost soul as he is an orphan who has been rejected both by his foster parents and by his fellow scouts eventually quitting the troupe and running away much to the horror of Ed Norton's scout-master.

The pair are able to survive fairly well due to Sam's wilderness training and eventually declare their love for each other moving down to the coast where they learn to dance, kiss and basically set up a small family unit. They are torn apart once again when they are tracked down and while Suzy is chatsised Sam must await the fate that lies in the hands of Tilda Swinton's Social Services a magnificently scary Mary Poppins figure all-decked out in pastel blue. Though we don't know what exactly will happen to our protagonists we are told at the start by Bob Balaban's omnipresent narrator that the time period and setting, a New England island community in 1965, is about to be hit by one of the biggest storms in American history.

From the opening scene of Moonrise Kingdom, which occurs in the Bishop house, you know you're watching an Anderson film as the camera tracks through every room in the house allowing us to get to know the characters. Unlike other films though Anderson doesn't keep us in one location for long allowing us to explore the scout camp with its uniformly aligned tents and unusually high treehouse as well as the caravan in which Willis' cop leads a lonely life. The fact that the characters escape the Anderson settings and try to start their new life is possibly one of the things I liked about the film as vast exterior locations aren't something you always associate with the director. In turn this allows us to explore New Penzance and its neighbouring islands as places that are separated from the rest of society with our guide in these scenes being Balaban, who is dressed up like a Christmas elf with a baromtoer around his neck, who uses maps to pinpoint the direction of our young characters. As well as sets, costumes always play a big part in the world of Anderson with uniforms especially being important to Moonrise Kingdom what with Willis' cop outfit, Swinton's hat and jacket combo, Suzy's Sunday school dress and the uniforms worn by the scouts all being important in some way especially in the final scene involving Sam.

As far as the performances go it's newcomers Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman who rightly steal the show from more accomplished actors really inhabiting these strange adolescents who have finally found each other. They almost become little adults with Sam smoking his pipe and Suzie feeding her cat I found the first half of the film to resemble a geeky Blue Lagoon at times. Talking of young actors I don't think the boys who play the scout troupe have been given enough praise in other reviews as I feel they acted as a small family and like with all the youngster in the film were much more grown-up than the adults. Anderson's strength as a director is getting the best out of his actors and I never once thought like I was watching Bruce Willis or Ed Norton but rather swept up in the exploits of Captain Sharp and Scout Master Ward. Anderson's script, co-written with Roman Coppola, was both warm and moving but most importantly it was extremely funny in fact it was possibly the film I've laughed most at this year. It is true that Anderson's film is still a little twee and also I did forget from time to time that this was actually set in the past as there were no real references to this however these are very small niggles. Finally the importance of the Britten music that the Bishop siblings listen to is in the fact that each part of the orchestra is separated but only sounds full when all of these pieces are put back together. That is true of the characters in Moonrise Kingdom separated they think they sound fine but it is only after being reunited and sticking together that they find their happy ending.Talking of music don't leave until the end credits role as you get a special treat involving Alexandre Desplat's score.

Verdict: With characters you care about, a script that never stops you laughing and two great central performances plus the usual Anderson charm this is definitely the comedy of the year so far so I will give it 9/10