Review of Moonrise Kingdom (2012) by Stefan G — 14 Jun 2015

This film presents a very interesting narrative, with its tale of true love in a time and place without it. Although this narrative isn't perfect, I found it to be a very rich in heart, depth, and real character.

The pacing was also refreshingly straightforward, which adds to my lingering feeling that this is essentially a more mature version of a children's movie. This would certainly make a lot of sense seeing as it comes from an unadulterated childhood perspective, rather than the kind of idyllic embellishment one can expect from a movie about childhood love.

As for the characters, I verily admired the realism of the performances, and that at the very least none of the characters made me want to cringe. The relationship between the two main characters is perhaps the strongest aspect of the film, because I could actually sense that the feelings between them were truer than their word.

Let it be known that if a film-maker can successfully convince you that the feelings shared between two fictional characters are real, then the film-maker has successfully recreated real love on the silver screen, and that's ultimately what the film is about.

Also worth noting is the film's whimsical sense of style, which works very well with the overall tone and atmosphere of the film. If there's any flaw with the film, it's that the narrative doesn't always make sense, and the ending ran the risk of ruining the whole message of the film.

However, the film has enough humanity and real emotion that I can overlook its flaws.