Following in the footsteps of his last animated feature Fantastic Mr. Fox, American twee authority Wes Anderson lets all his sappiness out in his most intricately orchestrated film yet. Every single frame in this children’s fairytale about a boy and a girl eloping into the woods (an ode to his real-life girlfriend Juman Malouf) is so meticulously and preciously planned out, they’re worth the ticket price alone. The script (penned by Anderson with fellow hipster Roman Coppola, son of Francis), however, is a little ho-hum.
The storyline is deceptively simple and it is Anderson’s acumen for aesthetics which makes the film such a pleasure. Two 12-year-olds Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) and Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward) meet at a costume play, get completely smitten with one another and decide to elope after one year of corresponding secretly over hand-written mails (so cute).
Shakusky is at Camp Ivanhoe, a scout facility on an island supervised by the earnest Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton). Bishop lives with her family (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand play Mr. and Mrs. Bishop) in Summer’s End, a red-and-white abode near the island’s lighthouse on the other side of New Penzance. They arrange to meet in a meadow, and off they go. He with a backpack full of camping gear, maps and supplies; she with a portable record player, a Francoise Hardy LP, a cat and a couple of children’s books stolen from the library. But en route to their eternal freedom and hot on their heels are her parents, his scout master and a local town sheriff Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis). Will love prevail?
Moonrise Kingdom is about the raptures of falling in love; about how the rest of the world doesn’t matter once you lock eyes with the person of your dreams. Yet for all its make-believe, there is a grown-up seriousness within the plot to hold things together, like the crumbling relationship between Suzy’s parents and Sharp’s paternal instincts.
Yet these themes get sidelined by the film’s visual artistry (Anderson probably spent more time overseeing the immaculate khaki and floral-inspired costumes, as well as the nostalgia infused set designs). For that, the film feels a little too lightweight. But so what? Moonrise Kingdom still manages to convey the whimsical states of childhood and a sense of youthful wonder; it feels like growing up all over again.