A Return to Genius From Wes Anderson?

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2013)

A pair of young lovers (Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman) flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them.
Many directors have a certain stamp they leave on their films that make it clear who was responsible. I daresay that Wes Anderson more than any other director might be the master of the stamp. If his name appeared nowhere on this film, the colors, characters and quirky plot would just give it away. He makes the indie style mainstream.
That being said, this is probably Anderson's best film in years. I cannot say I ever disliked any of his work, but "Darjeeling Limited" (for example) did not meet the expectations it should have. Here, we have the full Anderson experience: Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, a refreshing Ed Norton, and even Harvey Keitel (who seems to have faded away over the last decade). Bruce Willis was the weakest link, but luckily he was not crucial.
A good deal of work went into the production: the creation of the maps, paintings, books and more. I assumed the books were real, and I assumed wrong. I thought it possible that the map was real, but it was not. So this is a credit to the art design crew -- they made the fictional realistic, which is no easy task.
The film is nominated for Best Screenplay, and I think that is valid. On a surface level, it is a story of two outcasts and the innocence of young love. That alone makes a good story when told by the right people (as it is here). But then you add the second level, where the children are contrasted with the adults whose relationships have crumbled. We are not weighted down by their negativity, but are still fully aware of it. Perhaps the adults and children are a mirror to each other?
The third level is one I am not completely sure how it fits or what it means, but I believe there must be some symbolism to the flood motif. The island is shown three days before a flood, and a play showing Noah's Flood is prominent. More so, Suzy Bishop plays the raven, which was the first bird Noah released to see if the flood had ended. Does it mean something that she was a raven and not the sparrow? I am not sure, but I think so.
Some critics have listed this among the best films of 2012. I am not as confident. While certainly top 20, probably not top 10. But still well worth a view.