Childhood, lest we forget

Rating: 10/10 (2 June 2012)

It's an over-the-top, wildly exaggerated film - but that's exactly what Wes Anderson is trying to do, and exactly why this is a truly magnificent film. This is a film that celebrates childhood and all the crazy, ridiculous things everyone of us has done during our childhood. These things seem insane to the eyes of the adults, but to children, they were sacred and serious. Every symmetrical frame of the movie and every saintlike tune of the music tell us about this irony of childhood; this is a film where form and content are truly unified. And the frames and tunes are also so incredibly beautiful! Music composer Alexander Desplat deserves at least an Oscar nomination, and so does cinematographer Robert Yeoman. In a way, this is a story that can only be told in film form.
Childhood occupies but a small portion of our lives, but it plays a very important role - a most vital role, followers of Freud would say. As we get older and older, we tend to forget what it was like to be children. Wes Anderson certainly hasn't.