Review: Moonrise Kingdom

Plot: “Moonrise Kingdom” revolves around a pair of young lovers who flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them. The search party consists of a humorous group: Edward Norton as Boy Scout Master Ward, Bruce Willis as the loser cop Captain Sharp, and Bill Murray and Frances McDormand as the Bishops (parents of Suzy). With such an all-star cast and the unique directorial vision of Wes Anderson, The Audio Dope expected “Moonrise Kingdom” to be nearly perfect. While the movie wasn’t a total disappointment, we were definitely a little let down.

The strengths of “Moonrise Kingdom” lay in the acting of the Hollywood veterans previous mentioned, and the magical vibe Wes Anderson brings to his films. Overall the film was pretty entertaining. Willis and Norton shine as two totally out-of-sync adults who aren’t exactly as cognizant as they think. Any time either actors are on the screen, it’s almost a guaranteed laugh and smile for the audience. Unfortunately the film mainly follows the two child lovers played by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Although Gilman and Hayward delivered note-worthy performances, I felt teased knowing I could be watching a movie with some amazing veteran actors in hilarious roles.

If you’ve seen any Wes Anderson movie, you can almost predict the tone and mood of “Moonrise Kingdom”. The fantasy-esque world the director creates in 1965 New England is impressive and entertaining. Overall however, the film is a little more “cute” and “quirky” than “bizarre” and “wild”, like some of Anderson’s other films. Despite this fact, the movie was a mere 1 hour and 34 minutes and definitely worth seeing if you need to kill some time, or if you’re in need of a little pick-me-up.

Rating: 7 / 10