review by Lise Patron
Moonrise Kingdom 2012
Watched Feb 16, 2013
Lise’s review:
Well I'll be...
This is a great day. A fabulous day.
Feb 16 2013: The first day that I liked a Wes Anderson film. Finally!
My first date with Anderson was over 10 years ago. It should have gone swimmingly. Deadpan comedy. Quirky. Bill Murray. But alas, it was a disaster. After 1 hour of trying really hard, I realized that doing laundry was preferable to spending another minute with him and Rushmore.
The second date was no better. Even Gene Gene the Acting Machine couldn't hold my interest. It is not possible to have cared any less for the Tenenbaum family than I did. But I stuck around for the duration, determined to see if perhaps Mr. Anderson's Midas Touch is all about his endings. Yeah, not so much.
What was wrong with me? On paper Anderson was my favourite director. I couldn't not love him.
So I watched the Tenenbaums again the next day with the commentary track. Surely someone would explain what it was I wasn't seeing. Nope. Nothing.
Third time the charm? This time it was with The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Not the worst date ever, but really kind of boring. Certainly nothing to write home about.
That was it. I had accepted that he and I would never get along. In the years since I've thought about him a lot, and have always wondered why we didn't click. It was too incongruous. We had to get along. So I decided to give him one last shot.
Feb 16 2013.
Moonrise Kingdom.
It was a blast! It was a hit! I loved it! I was charmed right from the first minute and smiled throughout the entire adventure. I was giddy, I was so happy. I wanted to shout "Wes Anderson - I Get You Now!" from the front of the boat.
If the film had ended right after the special ceremony (to avoid spoilers), it would have been a perfect film. 5 stars. For Wes Anderson. From me. What a day. But alas, the last act had to happen. The craft requires it I guess, even though I certainly didn't. Oh it was all done nicely and there was nothing bad, but the giddiness was gone and just a fraction of the charm remained.
But at this point, none of that matters.
All that matters is that on Feb 16 2013 I fell in love with a Wes Anderson movie.
That might open up a few doors.
I might like Rushmore now.
I might like Tenenbaums now.
And if I do, Mr. Anderson will go down in history as the only director to win my affections after a full decade of wooing.
Interesting, Lise. The first Wes Anderson film I saw--"Life Aquatic"--I actually turned off after 20 minutes. It's so rare I do that (maybe 1 film in 100) that I haven't seen any of his others except "Moonrise Kingdom." For artists and writers, Anderson is almost a default director--it's pretty much required to adore him. However, I found the beginning of "Life Aquatic" excruciatingly bland AND annoying, like a flavorless apple full of fruit flies. It just seemed he was trying too hard to be clever.
However, I fell for "Moonrise Kingdom" just watching the trailer. It became one of my favorite films of last year. Just enough whimsy, but not too much. I'm a graphic designer, so all the costumes, colors, backdrops were perfectly suited to my tastes for aesthetic flatness, stylization, structured visual systems, etc.
Self-referential humor, affectation, sarcasm and light absurdity are great...in small doses. A whole film based off that framework isn't going to work for me. "Moonrise Kingdom" has a great ensemble cast, good plot, and some very pretty cinematography. But the two main characters carried the film for me.
Maria, I was telling David Merryweather in his review how I thought Moonrise had an animated feel to it; almost like it was a live-action rendering of an animated film, because of the production design. You know, how the outside stairs to the house are have a 'staired' railing, the way the church pews were so high that you could only see people's heads sticking out, that sort of thing. I just loved it. I loved everything about the sets and design, even more than any Tim Burton film when I think of it.
Tim Burton's Moonrise Kingdom would be something...
Anderson usually shuts me down due to his films not inspiring any sort of emotional connection with me; but I genuinely enjoyed Moonrise.
@ Travis, agreed! I couldn't help but think of Burton films I loved when watching Moonrise. I think his Moonrise was Big Fish.
Good point!, Jonathan!
It is crazy to me that you disliked Rushmore so much. That movie is so fun and charming, I find it difficult to imagine hating it. Of course this is coming from a newly anointed Anderson fan-boy, so take this comment with that in mind.
Great review Lise. I could have written this I felt exactly the same. Rushmore was a snoozefest. Tenenbaums I tried to watch 2 days on the trot to no effect. Fantastic Mr Fox I thought not so fantastic. Don't even get me started on Steve Zissou. I wanted to love Anderson so much but it always felt like when you spend an hour doing a puzzle to find the middle piece missing and you kick whole thing across the room in rage and disappointment. Moonrise Kingdom finally made that final piece click into place and now all is as it should be. The film is a delight. Now it is just a case of pencilling in the rewatches of his back catalogue.
@ Jonathan White - hmm this could have been a huge defining factor in why I loved Moonrise. good point.
This is a fascinating take on Wes Anderson movies. I have not seen Moonrise Kingdom yet, but I also struggled with Rushmore, Tennanbaums and Life Aquatic. I quite liked The Fantastic Mr Fox, but absolutely loved Darjeeling. My cousin, whose opinion I value highly cannot get enough of his movies so it is interesting to hear that I am not the only one struggling with his methods.
JimDocker I only hope I enjoy the next one I watch, or I'll feel like I am back to square one!