Enjoyable to most others--but NOT to me

Rating: 5/10 (16 July 2012)

In 1965, on a partially settled (with town & wilderness) New England offshore island, an unhappy, many foster-homed 12 year old boy, "Sam," is in a scouts' summer camp and he meets an unhappy 12 year old town girl, "Suzy," living in an dysfunctional family. Sam & Suzy "elope" into the wilds and camp together and that sets off several different search parties to get them back and separated.
After reading many positive reviews, I was VERY much looking forward to seeing this--but was very disappointed.
One reason, the Lawrence, KS, theater in which "B." and I saw it does NOT have a great sound system so 2/3rds of the dialog we could only guess at.
But 2 things were more disappointing to me: -- (1) that ALL of the characters seemed to be caricatures of real people with over-the-top reactions & events, kind of like people taking the roles of wooden manikins taking the roles of real people. And similarly for drastic events (e.g, lightning strikes & floods that omitted realistic human consequences). -- (2) AND, certainly MORE damaging to me, a retired clinical psychologist: I've worked (therapy + consulting with authorities & families) with scores of foster kids who've been repetitively rejected by their latest set of foster parents and forced into another placement--as well as with many kids in dysfunctional families who were acting out.
These are usually kids with IMMENSE amounts of hidden pain so viewing their behaviors and their behavioral consequences as canvases on which to paint comedy certainly doesn't hack it for me. (And since my "B." is a retired school social worker, she also shared some of those reactions although possibly not as strongly as mine.)
Warning: One brief scene may irritate those opposed to any hint of animal cruelty in movies.
Almost all who LO♥E Wes Anderson movies will greatly enjoy "MK": so far 95% of IMDb voters rate "MK" higher than I do and I have NO ill-will against any who like it.
"Different strokes for different folks"
My rating: 5 of 10