Moonrise Kingdom [PG]

Two troubled twelve year-olds, Sam and Suzy, meet, fall in love, and make a secret pact to run away together into the wilderness on New Penzance Island off the coast of New England. When their amour is discovered by Suzy’s parents and Sam’s troupe Captain, a frantic search begins all over the island to find the two lovers. 

A new comedy from two-time Academy Award nominated director Wes Anderson who brought us other quirky classics such as The Royal Tenenbaums and Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom is a fantastic little film that tickles and warms you in many places. It’s wonderfully fresh and irresistibly quirky and spontaneous, making it a movie that I absolutely adored. 

Two troubled twelve year-olds, Sam and Suzy, meet, fall in love, and make a secret pact to run away together into the wilderness on New Penzance Island off the coast of New England. When their amour is discovered by Suzy’s parents and Sam’s troupe Captain, a frantic search begins all over the island to find the two lovers. 

The film’s delightful quirkiness comes in the form of Wes Anderson’s jagged and spontaneous style of filming where many of the film’s most laughable segments are simple silent moments of the characters simply staring blankly at one another. Anderson proves that there is never a constant need for chatter and that there is just as much power and punch in silence as there are in words. The central romance of the two leads is a classic example of this as the kids, displaying beautiful bouts of cart blanche, keep the romance moving forward not by long-winded monologues of love, but simple and often blunt and short sentences that forcibly impress the point and at the same time brings a lot of the comedy into the mix. 

The film also boasts a brilliant cast of quirky actors but without a doubt the stars of the show were Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward who both make their screen debuts as Sam and Suzy. Jared delivered a performance that was adorably nerdy as well as bluntly romantic and quite mature. Kara, whilst being a striking beauty, gives a performance that is blunt and quite often unreadable, which makes her all the more endearing and irrepressibly fascinating. 

Starring Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban, and Harvey Keitel, Moonrise Kingdom is a fantastically fresh and quirky movie that’s filled with 60s fashion, a gorgeous classical soundtrack, romance, adventure, drama, and comedy. I absolutely adored this film and the two leading lovers proved to be great little actors. I could definitely watch it again.