Puppy Unlove

Rating: 8/10 (27 June 2012)

This film is recommended.
" And they called it puppy love, Just because we're in our teens Tell them all it isn't fair, To take away my only dream. "

Lyrics by Paul Anka's Puppy Love

The year is 1965. Sam ( Jared Gilman ) and Susie ( Kara Hayward ) have fallen in love. These teenagers want to desperately escape from the harsh realities of our adult world. So they form a secret pact and run away from all of the conformity, rules, and regulations that can easily complicate a child's life. Down with authority or any sense of order. It's freedom that this loners are after. But it is their very actions that create a domino effect of events that impact the complacency of a tiny New England community. This once peaceable kingdom slowly becomes unhinged in Wes Anderson's nostalgic whimsy of a film, Moonrise Kingdom.
Wes Anderson has assembled a stock troupe of eccentric actors to play his stock collection of eccentric characters. This group of indie favorites includes the stalwart Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, with Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel and Tilda Swinton newly added to his repertoire of quirky performers this time around. They bring their zany characters to life.
The end result is a diverting rehash of Anderson's highly personal themes and style: his ongoing search for lost childhood innocence and its stark divergence from reality; his somewhat surreal take on the world as it once was; his contrasting color palette brimming over with visual razzle-dazzle; his off-balanced sense of irony and humor. All of his trademarks are there as he playfully toys with his characters and their dilemmas. ( The director seems to be somewhat inspired by Truffaut's film, Breathless, but with a more comic and quaint tone, as these young fugitive lovers try to escape from society with their 45's, children's books, and binoculars in tow. )
While Anderson has a knack for capturing the joys and frustrations of adolescence and he thoroughly defines the awkwardness and simplicity of first love in his solid direction and humorous script ( with Roman Coppola as co-writer ), the director makes a few missteps along the way when he introduces some unnecessary violent images and an episode with the Schwartman's character that makes no logical sense. This takes the film on an absurd detour that almost deflates its satirical edginess. These scenes transports Moonrise Kingdom into the realm of stark reality which the film tries to avoid at all costs and "seriously" undercut the upbeat and carefree mood and message that worked so effortlessly within most of the film.
The young leads are perfectly cast as the misunderstood outcasts and their underage antics have all the more charm due to the natural performances that Anderson brings to the screen. Other factors that aid in the film's success are the surreal photography by Robert D. Yeoman which immediately shows the departmentalizing of its characters and their surroundings with its doll-house fascination of Susie's home, the humorous touches in the costumes by Kasia Walicka-Maimone ( loved the scout uniforms' detailing ), and the eclectic musical score by Alexandre Desplat, with assists from Benjamin Britton and Hank Williams.
The film is, without question, a decidedly quirky film that relishes in its own bizarre tendencies, and for the most part, entertains with its outlandish and idiosyncratic distinctiveness. Anderson's imaginative vision offers much to admire. Like the film's many odd characters, Moonrise Kingdom's originality and wholehearted uniqueness make for a satisfying movie-going experience and ultimately cajoles its audience into believing, once again, in the joys of childhood innocence and the power of puppy love. Oh, youth! Oh, crazy youth! GRADE: B
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