Of Scouts, Lawyers & Lovers

Moonrise Kingdom
(2012)


Directed by- Wes Anderson

*Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel and Bob Balaban


As Wes Anderson's Cannes opener begins, the camera sweeps across the rooms of a house, showing the daily lives of its inhabitants as we see a young girl pouring over a book.
The house is called Summer's End and the girl is Suzy Bishop, the troublesome daughter of an attorney couple living on an island known as New Penzance.
Suzy has been interacting with a pen pal she made when she participated as a Raven in Benjamin Britten's play Noye's Fludde. The pen pal is Sam Shakusky, an orphan Khaki Scout who is rather unpopular in his camp.
The duo decide to elope and thus begins this hearty adventure of a kid couple lost in a storm of emotions, innocence and a charm so beautiful that makes you fall in love with everyone who touches this story.


The sequence where Scout Master Randy Ward inspects the goings-on of his camp, Camp Ivanhoe, and discovers that a cadet is missing sets tune for the comic mood that transcends over the rest of the film.
The action which sees a daring rescue from a raging fire and a lightning bolt that strikes our hero on a pile of rocks, even, rings with that adventurous theme of the scouts.

But Moonrise Kingdom isn't the story of smitten scouts, nor is it a tale of broken homes and the tangles of human relationship. But it is, in fact, a lovely, heartfelt ode to the beating hearts and the apprehensive touch of a first love so strong it braves storms, lightning, floods and the wild to survive. A love powered by the principles of scouting and the wings of imagination. A love that leaves its home and creates its own Kingdom.


Narrated by Bob Balaban and set in an island community in 1965, brimming with that old world charm, the film has a beautiful imagery that is enhanced by the brilliant cinematography of Robert Yeoman. The green wildernesses, the turquoise oceans and the Khaki shorts form such an enthralling palette that leaves you astounded by it's visual eloquence.


The acting by the perfect ensemble cast is apt.
Bruce Willis as the bespectacled, sad Captain Sharp downplays his character splendidly and achieves a sympathetic perfection.
With Bill Murray and Frances McDormand as the headstrong attorney couple who raise their kids with military strictness and fail to understand the longing of their own daughter's heart.
The cameos by Tilda Swinton as Social Services and Harvey Keitel as the outrageous Commander Pierce leave a mark.
But among the adult cast it is Edward Norton's unsure, inexperienced and yet daring part-time-Maths teacher/Scout master that evokes empathy by the overall sense of goodness brimming about him.
And finally the lead actors, the couple in love, the man and wife; Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as Sam and Suzy deliver a performance of such conviction at such a young age which forces you to acknowledge their love as no less than that of legends, albeit with its own quirky sense of humor.


It is a film about the innocence of childhood and the eccentricities of love, of real people who strive in their real lives and scouts who march ever forward with flag, badge and banner and how love provides solace from the chaos of this grown up world.


Rating- 4.4/5