Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” is pure joy. What’s more, it does something nearly impossible in cinema: It captures innocence.
The scene is set at an Atlantic Coast island called Summer’s End. It’s like Tom Sawyer’s Island at Disneyland, a bucolic reserve with paths but no actual roads and plenty of forests, fields, coastal inlets and rushing rivers. The boys all seem to belong to the Khaki Scouts while the girls read adventure books and long for their own adventures. Watch out — they’re about to begin!
The time is 1965. A 12-year-old Khaki Scout named Sam (Jared Gilman) runs off with a dreamy but rebellious local girl named Suzy (Kara Hayward). He dresses in a coonskin hat, a corn pipe and bottle-thick glasses. She packs sensibility in a pink suitcase that seemingly contains every library book she has stolen and enough kitchen implements so no one will starve. (The young actress, who wears permanent eye shadow and make-up, reminds you somewhat of Emma Watson in the earlier Harry Potter movies.)
The runaways cause the island to mobilize — the Khaki Scouts under their chain-smoking troop leader (Edward Norton); a sad local cop (Bruce Willis); and Suzy’s parents, the Bishops (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand), each living in his own world with the mother’s secret liaisons with the policeman coming under more scrutiny than either party wishes.
If you enjoyed Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox and the Royal Tenenbaums then this is a must see film.
Moonrise Kingdom will be screened on September 9th at 7.00pm in Nantwich Civic Hall. £5 on the door.
