Saturday, September 1, 2012

Moonrise Kingdom


In my small suburban town in New Jersey, there is a theatre that plays only low budget films; the movies that wouldn’t exactly be a blockbuster hit. This past summer I saw a lot of great independent films there: To Rome with Love, Friends with Kids, etc. But one movie I saw I am still thinking about today. And that movie is Moonrise Kingdom. I did go into this movie a little biased since I love Wes Anderson and the cast also drew me in; Bill Murray, Ed Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand. The movie blew me away, it exceeded my expectations. It takes place in 1965 and stayed authentic to it’s time throughout the whole movie. The costuming was detailed, and the soundtrack was flawless. The island that the characters lived on was beautifully designed and it didn’t confuse me at all, and made sense location wise. 

Moonrise Kingdom is about two preteens who fall in love with each other via snail mail and attempt to runaway together. Their romance is only one aspect of this plot, with the chaos of the dysfunctional adults handling the situation making up much of the story. (Bill Murray of course played his usual depressing, alcoholic character who is the father of Suzy.)  Sam, the male protagonist is an orphaned boy scout living on an island with his troop for the summer. Although his romance with Suzy was adorable, I wasn’t too fond of Sam. It’s usually very hard for me to enjoy a movie when I can’t sympathize or relate to the main character however, the other characters made up for his lack of connection. 

Basically, I highly recommend this movie to anyone who hasn’t seen it. It’s not only aesthetically pleasing but the hilarious quirky characters make this movie very enjoyable. 

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