Welcome to Wes Anderson‘s universe for ‘Moonrise Kingdom‘, made in 2012, perhaps Anderson‘s most Andersonian film. It’s a bold combination of a movie for and about teenagers and a surreal fantasy, a nostalgic American story set in the mid-1960s – a time when children and teenagers were safe from the temptations of computer screens and phones but were threatened by other dangers from broken families and Social Services -, and last but not least an unusual, delicate and captivating love story. Anderson manages better here than in any other of his films to create a seemingly naive universe that incorporates real-world problems. The cast includes a gallery of celebrities that could form the cast of two or three major Hollywood productions, but it is them who seem to be making efforts to keep up with the two debutant teenagers who are cast in the lead roles. Hard to resist the charm of this movie.
Children and adolescents fleeing home or hostile educational institutions have a long tradition in American culture. The most famous are of course Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, the heroes of Mark Twain’s books, whose adventures take place in America before the Civil War. The story in ‘Moonrise Kingdom‘ takes place over a century later, in the summer of 1965, but the film’s heroes, Sam and Suzy, also face a lack of understanding at a critical age in families in crisis (Suzy) or in an adoptive family after the death of the parents (Sam). Something else also brings them together, something very important – a precocious love story, an almost forbidden relation as the two heroes are only 12 years old. Wes Anderson treats this difficult subject with delicacy, but without evading it. Of course, the performances of the two well cast debut actors – Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward – are finely directed. The story takes place on an imaginary island near the northeast coast of the United States. Suzy runs away from home, Sam disappears from the scout camp where he spends his summers, thoroughly learning survival techniques in nature, which he now has the opportunity to apply. Soon, the police, the scouts, the parents, the social service and almost the entire population of the island will be searching for them. One of the storms of the century is looming, threatening to hit the region. Perfect storm.
Bruce Willis (the cop) and Edward Norton (the scout camp instructor) act with obvious pleasure. Frances McDormand and Bill Murray would have the opportunity to give some psychological depth to a couple in crisis (Suzy’s parents) but they don’t succeed enterily. Tilda Swinton appears in the role of Social Services only for a few minutes on the screen, and to say about her that she creates a memorable role is already trivial, because that’s what happens in every movie she appears in. The aesthetics of the film are superb, from the dominant coloristic in yellow and khaki from the beginning to the threatening gray of the storm, and with the sets reminding us of dollhouses populated by real characters. The film deals with quite serious topics such as teenage traumas in broken families or electric shock treatments in psychiatric clinics. Anderson’s style that I would call fake-Disney works great for most of the film allowing him a soft approach. Towards the end only, the script (written by Anderson and Roman Coppola) seems to run out of ideas and the film ends like a real Disney studio movie, trying to please the whole family. But this detail comes too late and is too minor to erase the strong impression that ‘Moonrise Kingdom‘ leaves on teenagers of all ages.