Meh.

Rating: Null/10 (30 June 2012)

I guess my hopes were too high. I saw the previews and locked in on who the actors are: Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Harvey Keitel, Bob Balaban. How could the movie fail?
And yet it does. Scripted by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola and directed by Anderson, the movie is about a couple of 12-year-olds who run away together. Kara Hayward plays Suzzy and Jared Gilman plays Sam, and the actors are good. Sam's look of quandary was appropriate, and Suzzy was a vicious little delinquent -- which I liked. However, their story was muddled by all the back stories of the adults. There were a large number of kids in the Khaki Scouts who never really had a chance to let loose. And there was absolutely no ensemble acting among the grownups. Swinton and Keitel in particular were totally wasted in their brief roles. There was a great deal of promise, but it was never achieved.
Wes Anderson is an A-list director with lots of quirky movies: Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, to name just three. Unfortunately, the story doesn't carry the actors. It's too scattershot, and too many of the characters were empty costumes. There were lots of laughs, a nod or two at other movies, but it left me empty at the end.