Review of Moonrise Kingdom (2012) by Viet Phuong N — 31 May 2017

Such a lovely film! Wes Anderson really is a master in blending bright and cheerful vibes with dark underlying themes. Here we have a heartwarming coming-of-age tale of a boy and a girl finding each other through pure feelings and innocent dreams, but with a colorful setting overshadowed by numerous vile aspects of the society like bullying, child abuse, unfaithfulness, depression, abandonment, and social ignorance.

The way innocence of the childhood prevailed such social prejudices indeed helped lighten the mood of the audience, but many among them may still feel uncomfortable observing such especially dark depictions of humanity (Wes Anderson is no stranger in illustrating the dark sides of humans, but inexplicably I found this film a note darker than his previous ones).

Wes Anderson's treatment of the two main characters is especially admirable, with the pinnacle scene of Sam and Suzy dancing to Françoise Hardy's "Le temps de l'amour" on the Moonrise Kingdom beach that will surely invoke a melancholic feeling of childhood and initial loves from the viewers.

The acting of those two are not particularly outstanding, though, and the cast of this film in a whole, while very versatile, still seems to be less impressive than the cast of Wes Anderson's next one "The Grand Budapest Hotel".

Still, a very moving coming-of-age film that is rare these days.