Moonrise Kingdom is directed by Wes Anderson, and stars Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban and a cameo by MR. WHITE!!!!!!!!!!! REALLY!!!!!!! So the movie takes place in the summer of 1965, where we have two kids (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) who are in love with each other. They decide to flee their hometown and try to live a happy life. But when the adults find out that there gone; it causes them to have a local search party lead by the town's sheriff (Bruce Willis), the girl's parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) and the boy's scout master (Edward Norton) to find them. And what we get are hours of quirky humor and non-stop laughs.
Now I was really looking forward to this movie, even though the trailer weren't anything fantastic. But overall, it looked like a really good movie. I hate to say that I've only seen one Wes Anderson movie and that was "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and it was great. But I have to say, this movie was AMAZING all the way through, I was surprised. Right from the first minute, I knew that this movie was going to be great.
One of the best things about the movie by far is Wes Anderson's vision. Like all of his movies, every single tiny little scene looks absolutely beautiful. His direction is pitch-perfect, one of the best directed films of 2012 so far. Every frame, shot and more is just unbelievably good. It's so beautiful that it looks like a painting that he's created. His depiction of the 1960s are so well-done and so detailed that you can't take your eyes off it. It looked like a movie he wanted to make and then he did, so he decided to put special care into it and put whatever was in his mind into the movie but make it compliment the story. On top of that, The cinematography is great, the art direction is outstanding and the locations are just beautiful and detailed. To me the movie is a bit like "Fantastic Mr. Fox" from the atmosphere and the soundtrack (which I'll get to later).
The performances here are also great. Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward do a really good job in their debuts as the child-couple in love. Their chemistry is real sweet and have well-developed character traits that is also heartbreaking. The other kid actors do great too especially the Khaki scout boys where the boy use to go to. The actors betraying the scouts do really well together and felt like actual friends. The adult actors do an amazing job especially Bruce Willis, Edward Norton and Jason Schwartzman. Bruce Willis always does a great job and here he's really interesting and funny. Edward Norton does a great job playing the boy's scout master in which he's funny and we feel for his character several times. Jason Schwartzman for little time he had, he's hilarious and interesting. Bill Murray and Frances McDormand do a good job playing the girl's parents and they are really funny. Bob Balaban is underrated here as the Narrator and he's really good and interesting. And then finally the cameo by MR. WHITE!!!!!! (or Harvey Keitel if you didn't know) is great to see.
The humor in the movie, though quirky, is well-written and handled well. You get like these uncomfortable scenes with kids doing things they wouldn't normally do today. Like there's a scene where the boy and girl french kiss and then the girl asks the boy to touch her chest and he does. And then there are other scenes where kids smoke and drink alcohol and more. This is due to a smartly-written script that is in my opinion just plain gold. The characters are all likable especially the adults and you are attached to their personalities even though there are some characters you hardly get to know.
Lastly, the soundtrack is great. Like I said before, the soundtrack for the film reminds me of the soundtrack for "Fantastic Mr. Fox". The soundtrack just puts you into a happy mood and makes you feel proud of life. It just fits really good with the environment and overall I really don't have a lot to say about the soundtrack, it's really good.
So overall, the movie is amazing with it's outstanding visuals, great acting and characters, beautiful direction, a fantastic script, well-written humor and a really good soundtrack. Even though there's nothing special about the story, it's a story that was handled differently due to the talents of Wes Anderson's visuals that compliment it. It's worth seeing for any Wes Anderson fan and anyone else who likes movies in general will enjoy it. I think this movie is my favorite film of the year so far. Also, I think it's actually better than (WHAT A SHOCK!!!!!!) . . . THE AVENGERS!!!!!!!!! Yeah, it's that good. So I totally recommend you to go see this over any other movie that is out right now. This movie is destined to be a cult classic one day.
