Young Love

review by Denby Fortune

March 15, 2017

            Moonrise Kingdom directed by Wes Anderson is a lighthearted and playful movie about two 12-year olds who fell in love at first sight. This fascinating movie was set in the mid 60’s in a small New England town. The way this movie was shot somewhat resembled a cartoon because of how playful it is. Another factor to this movie being marvelous are the ideas of love at first sight and young love. When you put both of these ideas together at the same time, it creates an incredible heartwarming feeling for the audience.

            Since this movie was set in the mid 60’s, the costumes and set were complementary to the time period. The entire movie has somewhat of a tint to the image, which creates an old-timey feeling throughout the film. Costumes in this movie connected to the tint the image of the film had. A color scheme was executed throughout the film, where most of the set and costumes were a tint of yellow or green which created the illusion that the characters were actually in the 1960’s. This illusion made it that much more enjoyable to watch the film, due to how believable it was. While this movie was believable, it did somewhat resemble a cartoon at some points. For example, in one part of the movie the little boy gets struck by lighting, he falls over but immediately gets up. Of course, if this happened in real life he would not have been able to get up immediately and be okay. Since this movie contained more playful and cartoon like scenes like this one, it created the theater-like effect where the audience believes what is going on although it is not realistic.

            Another factor to this film being absolutely heartwarming and endearing was simply the plot itself. Throughout the movie, you watch two 12-year olds fall in love with each other, and learn that despite what they think, they are not alone. The film is more endearing than one might think due to the fact that both of the kids are very complicated in their own ways. The boy grew up in many different foster homes, and the girl is very neglected, just like him, and once they start talking they realize found someone who understands them. Although it seems crazy that 12-year old could actually be in love, the film makes it believable. 

            Wes Anderson did a fascinating job creating the illusion that the characters were actually in the 1960’s due to the costumes and set. They way the characters interact and work with each other, while putting aside their differences is inspiring. Overall, this movie is playful, heartwarming, and very endearing in many ways and is definitely worth the watch.