Moonrise Kingdom

Rating: 9/10 (19 December 2013)

The first scene begins with a small boy taking a record player off a shelf, along with a 45" of "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra." He is listening to the music whilst Suzy, the main character, walks into the room and sits on the windowsill intensely reading a book. A few seconds pass before she decides instead to open the curtains to look outside with her binoculars. The music becomes louder and more forceful as we see Suzy looking out the window, the shot zooming out to capture the house they are all inside. The title then flashes on, letting the audience know the story has begun.
For his next movie, Wes Anderson calls back actors he's worked with in the past, like Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray. However, this time he makes the decision to bring on some unexpected actors, like Edward Norton and Bruce Willis, both for roles contrasting ones performed in the past. The well-meaning Scoutmaster and soft-spoken Police Captain are both performed almost flawlessly throughout the movie. Anderson also casts newer actors for the main roles of Suzy Bishop and Sam Shakusky, played by Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman respectively. Despite the fact that this is their first movie, they both show immense potential for their acting in the near future.
Within the movie itself, Anderson uses many pieces composed by Benjamin Britten to tell the story. Sam and Suzy meet at a local church production of Britten's play "Noye's Fludde", 1 year before the events of the movie take place. The climax of the plot takes place in that same church, where the same play was cancelled due to a massive storm (implied earlier to be a hurricane). When the narrator is initially setting the scene of New Penzance, Britten's "Playful Pizzicato" is heard in the background. Along with a melody composed by Alexandre Desplat, and other songs from the time period of the 1960's, the atmosphere engulfs the viewer more and more into lives of the inhabitants on New Penzance island.
A main aspect of this movie I greatly appreciate is the fact that the budding romance between Sam and Suzy is very genuine and riveting. Both of them come from troubling backgrounds, with Sam constantly moving between foster homes and Suzy living in an unhappy, dysfunctional family. At first it sounds unlikely, but they quickly bond over the fact that they both have trouble coping in their lives, thus forming the love they have for each other. Written in the letters that Suzy saved, the create the plan to run away whilst he is camping with his "Khaki Scout" troop.
Another masterpiece added to Anderson's repertoire, Moonrise Kingdom is easily the most charming and romantic movie out there.