Review of Moonrise Kingdom (2012) by Eludiumq36 — 19 Oct 2012

This was an odd film across the board mainly due to the visuals, the actors, and their acting. First, the story is just a run-of-the-mill coming of age story centered on some 11 year olds. It's the type of story you've seen a dozen times before on Lifetime, A&E, CW, etc.

But this particular film stands apart from them because of the elements I noted above, but doesn't apart in a good way. The film is set in 1965 and the film is quality is intentionally set to be grainy with yellow tinting, so my Blu-ray experience was obviously dampened.

Then the actors - the principal stars (two kids) are unknowns but the supporting adult cast are all-stars. You'd think that would be great, but not so much. In fact, none do any better than unknowns could've but then this would've been an art-house flick instead of mainstream.

Finally, I have to agree with "dafuq" below who notes that there's no emotion or passion in any of the performances. Much of the dialogue is done in emotionless monotones and it's just a horrible shame.

Obviously director Wes Anderson did this intentionally but why ?? It's not a fully wasted effort but it could've been so much better.