Moonrise Kingdom

There are comedies, then there are Wes Anderson comedies. One can watch an Anderson film for about two minutes and just know it is his work. They all have that somewhat grainy look, a fair amount of actors are in his films, even the editing is similar. Well, Anderson's distinction carries over to his next project, "Moonrise Kingdom".

The year is 1965. Set on an island off the coast of New England, a young boy, Sam (Jared Gilman) and a young girl, Suzy (Kara Hayward) fall in love and because of their own dysfunctional situations, they decide to run away together. Sam is a scout and led by Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) and is tipped off by the other scouts of his missing. Soon afterward, the parents of Suzy, Walt and Laura Bishop (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) realize their daughter is missing. So they call the town cop, Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis) to find them. Realizing the boy is under foster care and that the foster parents don't want him back, Sharp has to notify Social Services (Tilda Swinton) to pick up the child. Will these kids be found in the midst of so much dysfunction abounding all over the island?

Others to round out the cast are Harvey Keitel as Commander Pierce, Jason Schwartzman as Cousin Ben, Bob Balaban as Narrator, James Wilcox as Scout Master, and L.J. Foley, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Jake Ryan, Charlie Kilgore, Neal Huff, Lucas Hedges, Gabriel Bush, Tommy Nelson, and Chandler Frantz as Izod, Roosevelt, Lionel, Lazy Eye, Jed, Redford, Skotak, Nickleby, and Gadge respectively as the other scouts.

This was painstakingly well delineated by director Wes Anderson. He really knows how to walk that dysfunctional, but very funny tightrope. It basically works because he markets on powder dry humor as opposed to physical, pratfall humor. The dry humor just gives these characters that look of dysfunction even more. This was equally well written by Anderson and Roman Coppola. As mentioned above, one knows an Anderson film when they see it. One look at his resume will tip you off: "Bottle Rocket" '96, "Rushmore" '98, "The Royal Tenenbaums" '01, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" '04, "The Darjeeling Limited" '07, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" '09. See what I mean? He even uses the same cinematographer he's used in the majority of his work to give it that same style-- Robert D. Yeoman,asc.

If you're an Anderson affictionado, you will love this because it follows his similar style, but even if you're not, this is well written and directed and is quirky, dysfunctional, and still funny enough that you can see that there are still quality comedies out there.

Out of 4 stars: 4                      Rated: PG-13                          94min.