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Moonrise Kingdom-nf

This PG-13 film would seem to be the perfect movie for a 12 year old boy or girl who feels misunderstood by most of the world, still enjoys child adventure stories and is interested how it might feel to be in love for the first time. Perhaps there is a little bit of this still left in everyone which gives this movie great universal appeal.  The setting is an island off the coast of New England in 1965  where a kid (Jared Gilman) attending scouting camp meets a local girl (Kara Wayward) his age . He is “picked on” at camp and unbeknownst to the camp is about to be rejected by his latest foster parents. She, lives on the big house at the end of the island with her sibs and parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand)  who clearly don’t  understand her or each other. These two peas in a pod make a plan to meet and run away together. He is the skilled little scout with his all purpose backpack and a trusty map . She has her suitcase filled with her favorite books and her kitten. They romp across beautiful fields, climb steep, curvy mountains and overlook beautiful water which they forge. They even allow themselves to have an experimental romantic kiss.  We then see the slightly nerdy but loveable scout leader (Ed Norton) realize one of his charges is missing and he mobilizes his scouts to find them Of course the parents of the missing girl are frantic and get after the island police chief (Bruce Willis) with whom mom previously has had a little hanky panky, to track them down. The chase on the island is somewhat like the keystone cops with ups and downs and back and forth. It is definitely a comedy but is also a young person’s romantic adventure but at the same time it  is a painful satire of how grownups make life painful for children. The screenplay by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola is outstanding and extra credit has to be given to Mr. Anderson not only for pulling together his unlikely story but for directing a band of kids throughout most the film. We can’t quite describe the original music background by Alexandre Desplat which helped carry the film mixed in with an exposition about the meaning of the instruments of the orchestra which we are sure had symbolism which we may have unconsciously appreciated. We did understand the meaning of a brewing of a big storm which was known to be on it’s way to threaten this island and it’s inhabitants. (2012)