About young love.

Rating: 7/10 (25 July 2012)

Wes Anderson's melancholic, magical, offbeat and fantastical world has spellbound audiences since his major breakthrough "Rushmore" in 1998. Since then his career has gone both back and forth in quality, not so much in subject matter. Anderson's films are more or less about the same things, and his "auteur" qualities are admirable and rare in American contemporary filmmakers. "Moonrise Kingdom" tells the story about a young boyscout that runs away with a girl during the last days of summer. Families and authorities soon starts looking for them. The performances by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward are good, no question about it, but the writing and handling of them makes them come at a distance - they are more alien than sympathetic, more odd than charming. The cast that surrounds these two are played by Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Bob Balaban and Harvey Keitel - a fantastic ensemble cast.
Anderson's highly stylistic approach is turned to eleven and every camera movement, every shot, every bit of dialog and use of clothing is draped in his vision. It's a good thing, but as well known, when style overrides substance and story, one can be left bemused, as I felt.
Still, the film gels well, and though it lacks some drama and emotional involvement throughout, there's much to enjoy - simply the pure ambition Anderson lays in trying to encompass the joys and sorrows of growing up in a world that isn't perfect for everyone or for that matter, anyone at all. The impact is as of a sleeper, as the viewer goes along the fantasia of a cinematic place that one is happy Anderson creates on screen, because it can never be in the real world - for both better and worse.