Review XII - Moonrise Kingdom

Review XII
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

A few years ago, I remember visiting the movie theatres nearly every month. Now, it seems to be a very rare occurence. I understand why - college makes for my free time being taken up by studying and sleeping. I was very disappointed when I realised I hadn't watched any films that had made it for Best Picture for the Academy Awards. I had really wanted to see The Artist, but on the rare time I went to the theatres, I would always skip out on watching it. I ended up watching it after it won for Best Picture (it was amazing), but it made me make a bit of a personal goal that I would watch the films that were highly recommended whenever I could in hopes that I wouldn't be completely clueless when it came to the Academy Awards. So I checked out Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom on a Cheapy Tuesday starring Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, and Frances McDormand.

The story tells about the love between Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward), two distraught children who seem to only find solace in each other. One day Sam runs away from his scout camp and leader, Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton), and Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis) is asked to find the missing children by Scout Master Ward and Suzy's parents, Walt (Bill Murray) and Laura Bishop (Frances McDormand). What starts out as an innocent chase turns into something bigger when the narrator (Bob Balaban) warns of a big storm coming, and Scout Master Ward and Captain Sharp find out Sam's an orphan.

The film definitely has funny parts in it, as well as deepily emotional scenes. The acting was top-notch, and the cinematography was stunning. You'd think I would have loved it, but I left the film feeling empty. The film was a bit fantastical, and that bugged me. You know how Scott Pilgrim vs. The World went from drama to fantastical in one scene? I loved it in Scott Pilgrim, but in Moonrise Kingdom, it bugged me. It wasn't a consistent fantastical element to the film - it just came out sometimes. It felt like it was trying to do something, but it came out short. For example, in one scene, and this is a spoiler as to one scene in the film, Sam is struck by lightning. It was fake, and it really bugged me. Then, later on, when Suzy and Sam kiss, You see some electrical currents pass between the two, and Sam says, "There must be some lightning still in me," or something of the sort. Both parts annoyed me because it was fake. Had the whole film had a fake twist to it, I would have been fine with that, but it didn't. It came out of nowhere, and people laughed. I couldn't laugh because it just felt so sudden, and I felt bertrayed. I understand it's supposed to represent a childlike view of the world, but it doesn't change the fact that it came out of nowhere practically. Either it should have introduced it early on in the film, or taken out it.

I also found the adult attitude to love from Sam and Suzy a bit too unbelievable as well. They are only twelve after all. Maybe I'm naive, but when I was twelve, while I was starting to take an interest in the opposite sex, I definitely didn't have marriage and life-long love on my mind. I was too busy enjoying myself in the last years of innocence. This is completely personal so I wouldn't judge the film solely based on my own experiences, but it still bothered me a bit. Again, maybe I was an immature twelve year old (or just an immature eighteen year old when it comes to young love), and I have yet to read someone's review who has a similar view, but it still bugged me.

Even though I'm criticising the film a lot, I'll reinstate the great acting and great cinematography the film had. This was Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward's first real acting experience, and frankly, they acted better than most adults in films nowadays. Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, and Bill Murray all took their roles and seemed to do well in it. I felt for each character, even if the story focused on Sam and Suzy. The places the film was, well, filmed, were amazing, and the way the whole thing was filmed was well done. Not to mention that some parts were quite funny, and actually got you laughing out loud. It's hard to get a whole theatre of people laughing, and this film managed to do it several times.

Overall, I'd give the film a seven point three on ten. The film bugged me, and I can't forgive it for that, but it did have some pretty great elements to it. It just left me disappointed because it failed to make itself really good because of a few things when I think it could have done a lot better. Films like that, I would say, are the most disappointing.