Moonrise Kingdom is set in New England the film is set in 1965. The film tells a story of two twelve year olds who met the summer before and remained pen pals ever since. The two youngsters arrange to run away the summer after. This is a romantic comedy introduces us to two young stars Jared Gilman who plays Sam and Kara Hayward who plays Suzy. As well as the two youngsters the movie includes some huge actors including Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman. Wes Anderson left me pretty unsure on what the story was about and how the start of the film played any part in the storyline.
Suzy Bishop is a violent pre-teen out casted by school and parents who lives with her siblings and her attorney parents (Frances McDormand) and (Bill Murray.). Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) has gone missing from camp where he has gone to meet Suzy to start their life over. The Scout Master Randy Ward (Edward Norton) starts a search party by sending of the remaining members of the scout troop and the scout camps dog Snoopy. Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis) and Suzy’s parents team up with Scout Master Randy Ward on a quest to find the two lovers.
Wes Anderson’s directing is good to the film he is trying to get across the tales of love and friendship between the two twelve year olds however it is not clearly put across and does not make that much sense parts of the film to what is going on.. With the storyline not the best and quite hard to follow the film is saved by the acting with huge performances by Bruce Willis and Edward Norton. Suzy’s father portrayed by Bill Murray was not a strong performance from a veteran actor like Murray’s whose list of films speaks from themselves; the character seemed weak and was not a usual Bill Murray performance. Parts of the film were quite strange to understand including the affair between Captain Sharp and Laura Bishop it comes out of nowhere and has no real back story to begin with we are only thrown into the affair when Suzy and Sam have gone missing.
The film Moonrise Kingdom is now available on DVD. If you are a fan of Romantic Comedies then this film is a good idea to watch however with a confusing storyline it might be off putting for some viewers who like to have an understanding of what is going on and how much it makes sense.