The Kingdom of Moonrise

review by Mike Templeton

3/15/17

Moonrise Kingdom was an American romance drama film released in 2012 directed by Wes Anderson and featuring a very talented cast including Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, and Edward Norton. All of these actors played very intriguing and engaging characters which provided the audience with quality entertainment and development of each character's personality and emotions towards other people.  What really made this movie so different from others was the unique style and format in which it was presented.

 The cinematography was notably magnificent because the film was set in the summer of 1965 and the color of the picture was in the appearance of an old beige shade which was resembling of an old color picture from that time period.  Also, some other filmmaking choices which had a notable usage in the film was the staging of two scenes with the camera split between two different people in two different locations at the same time. Another centerpiece which made this film so entertaining was the rich character work in the film which almost made it resemble a play instead of a movie.  This was most likely because of the sense of believability present in the movie in certain scenes. As an example in one particular instance the main character Sam is being chased by all of the people who are searching for him because he runs away with his love Suzy. This chase takes place during an intense thunderstorm and  Sam runs into the middle of the field and is zapped by lightning and burned severely. Almost as soon as this happens he rises and exclaims ''Well, I'm fine" and the scene continues.

This scene is very comical because of the silliness and it is also something one might see in a play because it seems like the theater is an environment in which the audience is asked to go along with things that are completely unrealistic like a person surviving a severe lightning strike. Another moment in the movie which would be completely ridiculous in the real world is one of the final scenes in this movie when Sam and Suzy are standing on the steeple of the church in a massive rainstorm amidst intense thunder and lightning. Once again, the people gathered to capture Sam and Suzy are in the process of separating them when all of a sudden the lightning strikes the steeple and it is destroyed and everyone survives this however, in a realistic world, this outcome would never be possible which is the suspended disbelief the audience is asked to just go with and understand. Anyways, this was a very different movie which was not a typically, realistic film. The playfulness made it a memorable, fun experience for the person who goes along with it and accepts it for what it truly is which is an awesome story of love and disbelief.