Moonrise Kingdom

Movie Title--  Moonrise Kingdom

Release Year--  2012

Running Time--  1 Hour and 34 Minutes

Director--  Wes Anderson

Cast--  Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Bab Balaban

Set in the summer of 1965, two 12 year old children run away from home causing the residents of their New England home to form a search party to find them.

During the summer of 1965 Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) is attending summer camp with his Khaki Scout troop led by Scout Master Randy Ward (Edward Norton) on the New England island of New Penzance.  On the other side of the island, Suzy Bishop lives in a house named Summer's End with her mother Laura (Frances McDormand), father Walt (Bill Murray) and three younger brothers.  Sam and Suzy, two introverted and troubled 12 year olds met a year earlier during a church musical called "Noye's Fludde" and became pen pals.  

Over the course of the year as they correspond with each other they fall in love and they make a secret pact to run away together.  Randy Ward then gets local law enforcement officer, Captain Duffy Sharp (Bruce Willis) involved in the search for his missing khaki scout.  Captain Sharp then learns that Suzy is missing as well and heads the search to find the two children.

Welcome to another Wes Anderson film.  This one I feel is stranger than some of the other ones he has made and it is definitely not my favorite.  I think the adult actors were great but I feel like the two lead young adults fell kinda flat.  Maybe they actually did a good job and I just didn't like their characters but either way, I was not thrilled by the two of them.  The story is quite repetitive, they have to search for the two children twice, which truly was one too may times for me.

I find this film is one that is hard to love.  I think the best performances were given by Edward Norton and Bruce Willis but even Willis is kind of strange in the film.  This truly is a film that is either going to be loved or hated with no gray area in between.  

If you are a Wes Anderson fan you will probably want to see this film but if you are only luke warm when it comes to Anderson's films, you may want to skip this one, it will only leave you wondering what it is you just watched.  Don't Forget the Popcorn!