Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson
The story: Scout-in-training and orphan Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) elopes with misunderstood Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward) on the island of New Penzance in 1965. Scout master Ward (Edward Norton) and police captain Sharp (Bruce Willis) track down the young lovers while Suzy’s parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) fret.

How much you enjoy this film will depend on your appetite for – or tolerance of – what is kooky, off-kilter, precious or twee.
The typical Wes Anderson film traverses the entire spectrum of quirky. The writer-director creates self-contained brightly coloured worlds in which stories of family, whether by blood or by circumstance, unfold drolly.
In The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004), Bill Murray and his submarine crew go after a shark which ate his friend. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) was all about the successes and failures of three privileged siblings.
At his best, Anderson draws you into his richly imagined scenarios with a gentle sense of humour and intriguing oddball characters.
With a relentlessly deadpan relationship at its core, Moonrise Kingdom happens to be among the more indulgent of his works.
It is a little frustrating given the promising set-up as the entire island is turned upside-down when the young lovers run away together.
Jared Gilman brings a likeable mix of bravado and vulnerability to the plucky and resourceful Sam, though Kara Hayward (both above) is largely one-note as the far too passive Suzy.
Maybe because the protagonists are so young, they do not bring that sense of pathos to their roles as, say, Murray and Jason Schwartzman did with their roles in more engaging Anderson films such as Rushmore (1998).
Good thing then that he has surrounded the young ones with a group of experienced and big-name actors who are great to watch as they do their thing in supporting roles.
The usually oh-so-serious Edward Norton is the almost goofily earnest scout master and Bruce Willis, so often the macho action star, is the somewhat pathetic and yet good-hearted Captain Sharp.
Caped and imperious, Tilda Swinton turns up as a character referred to only as Social Services.
You sometimes wonder, though, if the actors had more fun making the film than most viewers will have watching it.
Anderson’s particular brand of aesthetic had actually worked very well in animation for Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), perhaps because whimsicality feels less like an affectation in that genre.
But even in a lesser entry, Anderson’s voice is distinctively present. You could never mistake his movies for anyone else’s.
(ST)