Moonrise Kingdom

Moonrise Kingdom (2012). Director: Wes Anderson

What makes kids different from adults besides something biological, such as age? Perhaps one such thing is a kind of steadfast, even irrational, determination. Some grown-ups would call such obstinacy naive or even stupid for ignoring the power of reality; others would call it romantic for the exact same reason. Moonrise Kingdom is a recent film by Wes Anderson that in my opinion salutes this naive obstinacy, and, as an adult that also praises such naivete, I would like to write down my thoughts about it. 

Moonrise Kingdom is a story where two lonely young teenagers Sam and Suzy, who find connections with each other that they have never found in anybody else, decide to run away from this unfriendly world and start a new life together. The story is as much about Sam and Suzy’s adventure as how other people, kids and adults alike, are gradually moved by their resolution and lend their helping hands. The story is as naive as the naivete it pays tribute to, but that is exactly the point. One of the things I love about this movie is its children’s book-like quality, both in terms of the story itself and of how the movie looks. Being a big fan of children’s books myself, I appreciate this a great deal. It is also amazing how well Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola remember what is was like to be young teenagers. There are moments in this movie where I simply can’t help smiling because what the characters are doing reminds me of myself years ago. Actually this movie is loaded with this light and childlike humor that it is impossible for me not to adore. As a fellow adult, I tip my hat to those two gentlemen for bring out the kids inside them to create this wonderful story. 

All the characters in this movie are adorable (except for the villain, who is not a real villain because she doesn’t act out of ill will). The “love”, if you will, between Sam and Suzy is very heart warming to watch. It reminds me of a kind of young love some of us once had, where all we care about is to be with somebody. Whether it’ll work out from a realistic point of view is somehow irrelevant. Watching Sam and Suzy, a part of me wants to tell them, with a fatherly sympathy, that they know too little about love, about life, about everything. But a part of me wants to withhold my “advice” because what Sam and Suzy has is so innocently beautiful that even if they’ll end up breaking their hearts, it’ll still be worth it. So I smiled when I see other characters, just like me, transformed by Sam and Suzy’s resolution and move one after another from the camp of “reality” to the that of Sam and Suzy. The actors in Moonrise Kingdom are all very good, but I would like to single out Bruce Willis here. I do so not because he gives the best performance, but because he plays a character that is so different from what he’s played before that it is very refreshing. I also love his character because he feels a connection with Sam the unpopular and is among the first to treat him as an equal. 

Something to say about the music. I normally don’t have an ear for music in films, but the music in this movie is just wonderful; it goes so well with the story and the overall cinematography. It is also my first time hearing orchestra pieces with commentaries explaining instruments involved as the song goes along. It is just downright cuteness.  

The ending of this movie is another wonderful thing. I don’t want to describe how the movie concludes in detail. But here is my thought: it’s true that things may not stay the same forever for Sam and Suzy, maybe not even for long. But seriously, it doesn’t even matter anymore. What matters is that there was once a Moonrise Kingdom, and it was beautiful.