Not everyone loves this, or even likes it

Rating: 2/10 (15 July 2012)

When I read the synopsis, "tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness", I was thinking that this may not be the type of movie I would enjoy. But, after reading many rave reviews and noting the quality of the cast, I thought I should give it a shot. Unfortunately my initial thinking was correct.
The first scene that has a tall Edward Norton emerging from a smallish tent to review his scout troops in a flippant manner was a warning that this was going to be a long haul for me. The dominate elements of whimsy and fantasy to follow the initial scene I found to be forced and nonsensical. For example, why did Frances McDormand have to yell at her kids through a bullhorn when she could just as well have shouted? The two kids head off into the forest with a small backpack and then we see that they have set up a large tent, packed a gross of cat food tins, have a bow and arrow, and so forth. One of the most ridiculous scenes has the young boy being struck by lightening with only his fiery shoes left, but then he emerges with only charcoal having been applied to his face. There is a tree house perched atop a slender 40 foot tree. And so on.
The time period is 1965 and some attention is given to period details, but that effort seems rather pointless given the overall unbelievability of the story. It provoked a bit of nostalgia in me to hear parts of Leonard Bernstein's narration of Benjamin Britten's "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," played in the background in some scenes.
The great cast is pretty much wasted in undemanding roles. They seemed to be simply going through their paces. Bruce Willis has been singled out for his performance, but I think the only thing remarkable about it is that he is playing against type. The young girl's principal contribution is being a pretty young girl. The main character, the young boy, I found irritating and could see why his scout mates did not like him.
This is the first Wes Anderson movie I have seen and if this is representative of his style, I know to avoid his other movies.
This is billed partly as a drama. If you are a person who hopes that a drama will have some shred of believability, then this movie is most likely not for you.