A perfect mixture of innocence and romance

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2012)

Rob Reiner's 'Stand by Me' is regarded as the best children's tale ever made as a motion picture, without taking into consideration the animated films that have been coming out for more than five decades with improved technologies with each passing year.
Wes Anderson has revived the dreams of most troubled teenagers through this beautiful motion picture for which he penned the script too.
The movie is set in the backdrop of a colorful, verdant island in '65 in America. A parallel plot, which deals with the most intense storm that swept the island in its history, links the main plot that shows us the happenings of the days preceding the storm.
Two troubled teenagers who meet at a play, like each other the first time they lay eyes on each other. They become pen pals and bond over regular letters. The boy despises his foster parents as much as the girl despises her blood parents. They set out in the woods and the boy, being a scout(or "a former khaki scout" as he calls it) camp in the woods. They are pursued by the fellow scouts and local police and are finally captured the next day.
Their capture doesn't deter their relationship. The fellow scouts who previously didn't approve of the boy, make up their minds and help the boy and the girl get off the island. They even get married with the help of one of the scout's cousin. The storm arrives and everyone's caught in the midst of the storm. And what follows is an unpredictable, yet apt ending for this movie that reminds us all how things were bright and beautiful when 'innocence' existed.
I really loved the camera work, the editing and the euphonious background score. The humor is immanent and the plot may not leave you with rib tickling jokes, but will leave you smiling nonetheless.
Ironically, I must agree it's not a children's tale.