Moonrise Kingdom

  I wasn't sure what I would view when I decided to have Netflix send me the DVD for this 2012 film.  What a surprise it was.  A fun off the wall story that was not really in reality but gave every appearance of reality.  It included a select group of very experienced actors and actresses but in ways that I found to be very different from their usual appearances.  It only justified the reality that great stars on screen can demonstrate the ability to present any image realistically.  Yet, these stars, and they included Ed Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis, and Tilda Swinton were  easily identifiable but in performances not much like their usual images.  In addition Bob Balaban and Harvey Keitel had roles and I jsut couldn't identify them in their roles.

  With all of this said it is necessary to note that the two biggest stars in this film who had most of the screen time were performing their initial screen roles.  These were Jared Gilman as the hero of the film Sam, and Kara Hayward as Suzy, Sam's principal co-hort.  Neither of these youngsters  were in their teens as yet, both being in the 11 to 12 category when the film was shot.

  Moonrise Kingdom is about these two young people and their alienation with the world.  Sam was an adoptee whose birth parents had passed away.  He was the property of Social Services, that government organization who take responsibility for these kind of kids who are passed from hand to hand in foster homes.  Unfortunately for Sam he is not well liked by his current parents or for that matter his companions of the same age.

  Suzy on the other hand comes from a stable but rather unusual family.  She is the oldest of four children the remainder being boys of various younger ages.  McDormand and Murray are the parents and they apparently do not have much in the way of communication with each other.  Suzy is strongly disgusted and unappreciative of their parenting performance.

  The gist of the film is how Sam and Suzy originally met and how they decide to spend some time together and not be bothered by others adults or otherwise.  This is managed because Sam is a member of a Boy Scout orgniazation that I guess was organized for the film.  He always is seen in his scout outfit which includes hiking type shorts and other scouting clothing and badges as permantent wear.  It is while at his annual Scout get together that he decides to make his way out of the situation he's does not like.

  Sam had met Suzy the year before and discovered she was the woman/girl he loved.  She enjoyed his devotion and engages in a year long mail communication with him.  This allows them to get their plans worked out.  Suzy is a devotee of using binoculars for inspecting the landscape and is very efficient at using this device.

  The story then is set up by his sneaking out of the camp set up for the annual Scout Camp summer activity and learning experience.  Sam is packed to the gills with stuff they will need, tent, food, cooking instruments, and other necessities of life.  She observes his coming through her binoculars.  She has her own necessary items plus her cat and a large quantitee of cat food to feed this creature in hand as she heads out to join him.

  The rest of the story covers the episodes of their days together, the reactions of parents and authorities and the affects of the elements in an area that is somewhere off the coast of New England in a group of islands which I assume are imaginary.  The key thing about the environment is a hurricane is due to hit during this period.

  There is real pleasure in watching how they cope and get better acquainted with each other.    Even more interesting is the bizarre behavior of the adults depicted in the film.  Ed Norton is so un-Ed Norton in this film that it is hard to imagine this is him.  He is continually dressed in his scouting outfit and has a rather peculiar way of dealing with the scouts in his charge.  Murray and McDormand are really alarmed at the disappearance of Suzy.  Their personal relationship is difficult to define accept that they don't seem to be very good at relating to each other.  Bruce Willis as the island law enforcement official, the setting is on an island off the New England Coast, has a rather vague understanding of the law enforcement requirements.  Tilda Swinton is every one's picture of a by the book Social Services representative without much of a clue as to what needs to be doen.  She is a policies and procdures follower.

   The various episodes of how this all fits together and resulting conclusions and events is alternately  realitic and at the same time it is a fantasy.  This film like some of the other best classics is strongly ordered by it's dialogue and the deadpan way the language is used to describe and define what is  happening.

  The film is not similar to two other movies that dealt with children of this age bracket.  "A Little Romance" the film that introduced Diane Lane as a 14 year old in her first role is a sweet film with unusual events but it never has the unreal qualities of Moonrise Kingdom.  The other interesting one that involved a 12 year old was "The Professional" the remarkably brutal but interesting film starring Natalie Portman in her first role opposite French actor Jean Reno. 

  I would suspect that the film won't be liked by everyone, but it;s high rating on the IMDB rating system using votes of users of that web site indicates that the vast majority of viewers thoroughly enjoyed what they saw and heard.