Runaways tug at the heart strings
By Christy Lemire |
June 3, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE contradiction inherent to all Wes Anderson films - the juxtaposition of the meticulous artificiality of the settings and the passionately wistful emotions that are longing to burst free - is at its most effective in a while in "Moonrise Kingdom."
The director and co-writer's tale of first love, filled with recognizable adolescent angst and naive fumblings, feels at once deeply personal (and, indeed, it was inspired by a boyhood crush of his own) and universally relatable. Of course, it features the fetishistic obsession with production and costume design that is his trademark.
Despite its rigid structure, which includes exact tracking shots from room to room or person to person, the look of the film is alive and inviting, the work of Anderson's usual director of photography Robert Yeoman.
If you love Wes Anderson, you'll love this: The best of what he can do is on display. The screenplay, which he co-wrote with Roman Coppola, has resulted in his sweetest and most sincere live-action movie since 1998's "Rushmore."
And, similar to "Rushmore," "Moonrise Kingdom" has precocious, misunderstood young people at the center of its precise yet off-kilter world. Newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward star as Sam and Suzy, 12-year-old loners who find each other and run away at the end of summer 1965.
Trouble is, these two have nowhere to go - they live on the insular New England island of New Penzance, a rocky, place with no paved roads and only one phone - and a storm of epic proportions is on its way.
Gilman and Hayward nicely underplay their emotions at first as two sad, socially awkward kids tenderly feeling each other out, but the way Anderson and Coppola unveil their backstories in time gives them complexity.
These flashbacks are among the elements that infuse "Moonrise Kingdom" with absurd humor and an engrossing fluidity.
You almost long to protect these two, once you get to know the adults who are scrambling around trying to find them, including Bruce Willis as the island's lonely sheriff and Tilda Swinton as the all-business social services worker.
Jason Schwartzman rounds out the excellent supporting cast as the fast-talking, efficient scout leader who helps Sam and Suzy with their plan; the performance will put a smile on your face as it suggests who "Rushmore's" Max Fischer might have grown up to become.
The director and co-writer's tale of first love, filled with recognizable adolescent angst and naive fumblings, feels at once deeply personal (and, indeed, it was inspired by a boyhood crush of his own) and universally relatable. Of course, it features the fetishistic obsession with production and costume design that is his trademark.
Despite its rigid structure, which includes exact tracking shots from room to room or person to person, the look of the film is alive and inviting, the work of Anderson's usual director of photography Robert Yeoman.
If you love Wes Anderson, you'll love this: The best of what he can do is on display. The screenplay, which he co-wrote with Roman Coppola, has resulted in his sweetest and most sincere live-action movie since 1998's "Rushmore."
And, similar to "Rushmore," "Moonrise Kingdom" has precocious, misunderstood young people at the center of its precise yet off-kilter world. Newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward star as Sam and Suzy, 12-year-old loners who find each other and run away at the end of summer 1965.
Trouble is, these two have nowhere to go - they live on the insular New England island of New Penzance, a rocky, place with no paved roads and only one phone - and a storm of epic proportions is on its way.
Gilman and Hayward nicely underplay their emotions at first as two sad, socially awkward kids tenderly feeling each other out, but the way Anderson and Coppola unveil their backstories in time gives them complexity.
These flashbacks are among the elements that infuse "Moonrise Kingdom" with absurd humor and an engrossing fluidity.
You almost long to protect these two, once you get to know the adults who are scrambling around trying to find them, including Bruce Willis as the island's lonely sheriff and Tilda Swinton as the all-business social services worker.
Jason Schwartzman rounds out the excellent supporting cast as the fast-talking, efficient scout leader who helps Sam and Suzy with their plan; the performance will put a smile on your face as it suggests who "Rushmore's" Max Fischer might have grown up to become.
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