Review of Moonrise Kingdom (2012) by Michaeldn — 13 Oct 2012

This is a cute movie, with some witty dialogue, and some mild emotion attached to it. However, like most Wes Anderson movies, it is pretentious, self-indulgent, and tries to be a deep, profound statement, not realizing that it's merely just a cute, quirky comedy.

That honestly takes away a lot of its appeal for me, and that's why I docked it a points. I would put this movie in the same boat as something like Crazy, Stupid, Love. It was cute, funny in some parts, and heartfelt in others, yet there was nothing groundbreaking about it.

I would have given this movie a slightly higher score if Wes just allowed the movie to just be the cute little movie that it was. When it's reaching to be a profound statement about the lives of these kids, it fails to do so, and it just leaves a bad taste.

The most emotional moments have all been done before in many other movies. It does feature a cast of strong, respected actors, like Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, and Bill Murray, although I wouldn't put this in the discussion for being one of the betters performances, or one of the better movies, for any of those people.

They were cute and quirky, just like the script. Something both Wes Anderson and his pal Noah Baumbach need to work on is knowing their limits though. That haughtiness they seem to have comes across in their movies, and ruins their appeal.