In a summer of pathetic and predicable, bland and boring movies, along came Moonrise Kingdom a film that has the visual quality of my Dad’s old super eight movies— you know, grainy, close ups too close, weird angles, the works. For an hour and 33 minutes you are transported to a strange but familiar, distant yet close, world. You may, or may not be a fan of Wes Anderson’s previous movies (e.g. The Royal Tannebaums) with its mannered camera angles and quirky characters and faux old sets and scenes, but this movie is different— in some respects.
In the first place this is a story of young love against all odds. Or one could rename it ‘the Odd Get Even’. But strangely enough you like the odd characters in this film, especially the young ones. And by the same token you find the young lovers the most sane characters in the film peopled by dysfunctional parents (Bill Murray and Francis McDormand) loser police chiefs (Bruce Willis) femi-Nazi social service workers (Tilda Swinton) and last but not least an inept Scoutmaster (Edward Norton). Needless to say, the supporting cast is out-standing and they all play their flawed characters to the hilt to such a degree that the two lead characters (the teens) seem mature and the adults are the ones you would like to put in the juvenile detention center.
In one sense, Moonrise Kingdom (the name given by Suzy and Sam to the place they run away to) is a film version of theater of the absurd. In a crazy world those who are most innocent and least affected by the world seem most sane. The story is set in 1965 on an island off Maine (New Penzance), and all the clothing, artifacts, food, cars etc. seems perfectly suitable to the period. On top of that the film features music I learned to play in the 60s as well— Britten’s Guide to the Orchestra for Young People (using a theme by Purcell to introduce the different instruments) and the ever popular pizzicato polka.
But the adults in the film are decidedly not very normal. Suzy’s parents are both lawyers who live in different parts of the same house, and Suzy is saddled with three little brothers who are pretty bratty. No wonder she wants to run away with a nerdy Khaki Scout. He looks good compared to what she lives with at home day after day. The island life seems to have warped its older inhabitants, and the younger one’s just want to get out of Dodge.
But there is another dimension to this film. This is signaled by the play Noah’s Fludde that is being staged in the local church. The theme is how a torrent can wash all things cleans and create a new world. And low and behold that is precisely what happens both internally and externally in the film. I’ll not spoil the happy ending, but the synchronicity between the torrent of teenaged love and the torrents that overwhelm the island reinforce the theme of the film.
I have not much cared for Wes Anderson films in the past, but this exploration of young love, and the fantasy of running away together is more than a little interesting and appealing, and if you are looking for something that will stimulate thought and feelings aplenty, this is the film for you. Suzy plays the bird that confirms the whole new world to Noah in the play, and does so for her young amour as well. As for Suzy….. had she existed in 1965 in High Point N.C., I too as a Boy Scout would have been tempted to throw away my lanyards and run away with her as well.
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