"Epic" children's play

Rating: 7/10 (31 January 2013)

After watching this movie, I feel like I've actually been in a theater. Watcing a children's play. Weird.
This is definitely something new to me, I've never watched a movie quite like this. The plot itself could have been displayed in a regular way, but then this movie wouldn't have been as special, would it? If this was just another drama about two adolescent runaways, misunderstood and neglected by the adults, and the consequent search party, it would have been just another movie we have already seen. And it would probably get good enough reviews anyway, at least because of its great cast. But instead, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola decided to go in a slightly different direction. And I wouldn't expect anything else from them, anyway.
At first part of the movie, I must be honest, this irritated me quite a bit. That's probably because I'm not used to watching movies filmed this way. Furthermore, it's not just that the movie was filmed like it was a children's play, but it was also filmed as seen through children's eyes, so it basically pushes the viewer to adapt to thinking like a child. Although it has its adult moments, flirting with themes such as love, romanticism, even sexuality (in a clumsy, childish manner), but also "darker" themes such as child negligence, adultery, hurting (both physical and psychical) and death. There is also a slight touch of dark humor in some scenes.
One thing that I didn't like in this movie is the music - it's too loud, too quirky, and in my opinion there's just too much of it. I would have rather that they skipped a few numbers, and left some scenes silent, just with the conversation of the characters. But, I guess the music was done like this on purpose, so to create the theatrical atmosphere, and to be in tone with the rich and colorful stage scenery, and emphasize the "epicness" of the plot.
All in all, this movie left me a bit confused. I'm not sure whether to like it or not. It's definitely not my genre, but then again, this is something I'm not used to, and it's kind of hard to say if it's my genre or not, since I can't even label this movie with a genre, I'm not sure of its genre. One thing I do know, and that is I am not a theater guy myself, but I think this movie would be very interesting to anyone who likes the theater. And also to anyone who is open to something new, equipped with a little patience, and appreciates artistic freedom - I say, thumbs up!