Moonrise Kingdom

I have to say that this time the whole is less than the sum of its parts. In Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson works everything (everything that the eye can see) to the tiniest detail, which is nice and I appreciate it, but the charm of the story gets drowned under all that heavy and refined splendour. Visually, it’s beautiful – it was a lot of fun to pour over each scene and notice how Anderson moves with the camera (the opening credits!) – but I never got into the story and it didn’t affect me at all on an emotional level. All of Anderson’s films are standoffish, but you can find in them places to feel sad or moved… but here I missed them. The same applies to his characters, they are all (very) weird, but this time I missed the vitality I felt in Mr. Fox, Zissou and others. In Moonrise Kingdom I only found that vitality in Bill Murray’s character (the night scene in the bed), who was given very little space. Immediately after watching it, an unenthusiastic 80%, but it needs to lager a couple of days. (19/07/2012)

Anderson's scout sale - contrived, copied from previous deeds, atypically unfinished (so many ideas simply just fade out), and more than anemic in terms of the storytelling. I accept the poetry of the first loves and boy's camping, but I expect more from Wes than the amusing shallowness, which mainly turns into a total spasm in the end. (07/07/2012)

Like a heretic, I confess that I have only seen Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, which didn't quite fit my mood at the time and has been waiting for a second chance ever since. After Moonrise Kingdom, I will definitely give it that chance. And I'm definitely going to (finally) watch Anderson's older films too, because this one literally charmed me - with everything. An original, funny, endearingly childish adult spectacle, perfectly cast, even better written and directed, and with a great Desplat score. What more can I ask for? (09/03/2014)

Sam and Suzy present with the reputation of a a masterpiece, but they convince me of what I suspected a long time ago: I am much happier when Wes Anderson talks about family relationships than when he relies entirely on nostalgia in coming-of-age stories. That's why I continue to enjoy The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, or the underestimated The Darjeeling Limited; and yet there are a few things that bother me about Moonrise Kingdom, which moodily joins forces with Rushmore. All the usual shyness and elusiveness suddenly seem too deliberate for me, and the dialogues are always slightly overdone, to make Wes's typical moods easier to recognize. Bruce Willis, the meticulous Edward Norton, and the perpetually serious Kara Hayward work perfectly, but even they fail to convince me to go on this road trip again. (16/10/2012)

An oddity for indie lovers, hipsters and various other weirdos who will probably drool over the film of the year. For a normal viewer, however, except for a few moments, it is almost non-stop suffering with oddly chosen music and a convoluted ending. At least in terms of actors there is someone to lean on. (17/01/2022)