Anderson At His Finest

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2012)

You wouldn't be alone in thinking that every Wes Anderson film is much the same. Each one involves family dysfunction, melancholy adults, meticulously planned camera shots, immaculate soundtracks and all, bar one has Bill Murray credited. Yet amongst this recycling of everything his old films consist of, Anderson manages to make his latest venture Moonrise Kingdom fresh, new and somehow completely different.
Set on the fictional island of New Penzance, Khaki Scout Sam Shukusky (Jared Gilman) and deadpan dreamer Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward) fall in love and elope, to live life in the wild, away from their families. On the case to find the two love birds is island police officer Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) with troop in tow, as well as Suzy's lawyer parents Mr and Mrs Bishop (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand). Doesn't sound quite hectic enough for an Anderson film? Then maybe the fact that there is the biggest storm on record heading their way will satisfy that. As with all of Anderson's features though, it never feels cluttered and doesn't dwell on a single moment or problem any longer than it needs to.
Moonrise shows two sides of life; on the one hand we have the twelve year old love birds, completely naive of the world ahead and believing they can make it through anything together. The newcomers Gilman and Hayward excel with their ability to express so much emotion and passion from such impassive performances. On the other end of the spectrum we have the adult characters, all of whom are drizzled with sorrow, a sense of opportunities missed and past demons hanging over them.
This is no drab, depressing affair however, even at its lowest points the film spews life and energy from every shot and pan of the camera. It's clear each image has been scrupulously thought and rethought so as to achieve the aesthetic pleasure that it does in all of Anderson's ventures. To boot, Francois Hardy, Hank Williams and Benjamin Britten enlighten the soundtrack to accompany the cast throughout their venture perfectly. Although the film isn't without its faults; the remainder of the Khaki troop are underused, and the narration by Bob Balaban seems fairly unnecessary.
Moonrise Kingdom is Anderson's second writing collaboration with Roman Coppola (son of Francis Ford) and is much more engaging and heartfelt than their previous outing, The Darjeeling Limited. With such a signature vision it could be easy for Anderson to get caught up in himself and create a self indulgent mess. It would seem he is very aware of this however and stays on the right side of the spectrum making it engaging and entertaining without pushing it to be quirky for the sake of quirk.
Part action romp, part romance, part comedy and part coming of age drama; it all adds up to make a wholly captivating film. Despite being arguably the same as every other Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom is anything but.