Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  7 / 10

  Moonrise Kingdom is a sweet heartwarming coming-of-age comedic drama that showcases some great talent. That talent mostly being Wes Anderson who has crafted an authentic drama with some contemporary flavours. His direction is so quirky that it's hard not to fall in love with it. The centralisation of characters and objects with the camera, the still shots of the excellent production design, the side track panning as characters walk along and a nice 360 degree scene within a house. The stages built for those scenes just ooze design excellence and I have to admire the simplicity. We follow two 12 year olds who fall in love and plan to run away, but various authorities attempt to track them down. It's a basic plot but the animated characters and young performances help reinvigorate this exhausted genre. Our typical Anderson cast (Norton, Swinton, Keitel, Murray etc.) are all here again and give great performances. The awkward yet loving chemistry between our two young leads was moulded with care and tenderness that I found somewhat relatable. I'm sure back in our youth we all fell in love with a crush and wanted to run away from everyone...no? Just me then. Again, the production design was genius. I love how it purposefully look like it's built for a stage show as opposed to a cinematic piece, there is something so idiosyncratic about Anderson's choice of style that just makes it wonderful. Whilst all the above is all plain sailing, my major issue was with the narrative. I found myself somewhat disengaged until about halfway through. Right from the start, you are thrown in straight away with about 47 characters (completely accurate...) and a geography lesson of the island. Honestly I needed to get a notebook out. It was intimidating! Like an onslaught of quirkiness. It took so long for me to catch up and become invested that the short runtime of 94 minutes was nearly over. It's a shame, wish it was longer so that the plot development could take its time. However, it's a sweet film and Anderson's style is impeccable.

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