Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Coming out of his work on Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson was ready to go further into aesthetic and style than ever before with his next feature Moonrise Kingdom. Taking place on a New England island named New Penzance in the summer of 1964, Moonrise Kingdom follows the journey of two kids named Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward) who decide to run away together in an act of love. While a storm brews just off the island, Sam and Suzy not only get to know each other better but have to hide from those out to find them including Suzy's parents, the one cop on the island, and the Khaki Scout's from the troop Sam belongs to.
Where Wes Anderson always had a very specific and meticulous style to his filmmaking with specific cinematography and styles of dialogue, he really started to build his own worlds starting in Moonrise Kingdom. Where previous Anderson films such as The Royal Tenenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited have found magic in the real world (with The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou falling somewhere in the middle), Moonrise Kingdom was where Anderson started to fully control things like color schemes and lighting making the film feel like a story out of a storybook. It is reasonable to think that Anderson gained this understanding of world-building from his work in animation with Fantastic Mr. Fox where due to the nature of that filmmaking Anderson had control over every aspect of its world. From the tan and green visual design to the multiple stunning shots of the island. There is no doubt that visually Moonrise Kingdom is a stunning film. This is also heard in the soundtrack from Alexandre Desplat who continually proves his range turning in soundtrack after soundtrack that sounds completely original from each other.
Where on a technical standpoint Moonrise Kingdom might be one of Anderson's best, the story feels sadly unpolished. The issues start right at the start of the film. Wes Anderson is normally one of the best filmmakers out there when it comes to introducing his characters and their relationships but Moonrise Kingdom fails to effectively do this. Right from the start the film jumps into the aftermath of these two kids running away not establishing not just who they are but their relationships with everyone else. Anderson tries to throw humor in such as the Khaki Scout's creating readily weapons for their hunt of Sam and Suzy. Due to not having any set up this joke and others fail to land and leave the audience confused and disoriented which the film never fully recovers from.
The character motivations also suffer from this. Sam and Suzy do get plenty of development and feel memorable as characters but nearly everyone else in the film fails to go beyond just being performances and characters of style rather than substance. Even with characters that are given something seemingly of substance in the plot such as Suzy's mother (Frances McDormand) cheating on her husband (Bill Murray), the film never really gives the character time to explain their actions or get into their mindsets to where those plot details would lead to actual substance. Other than the quirky performances from the side characters, there is nothing from them to make their characters memorable or impactful.
Moonrise Kingdom more than any other film from Wes Anderson feels like it suffers from style over substance. The film is so concerned with creating a memorable world (which it completely succeeds at) that it simply doesn't give enough focus to the characters or story. It isn't that the film is bad, the characters are likable and it does eventually get there with the two main characters. Mostly, Moonrise Kingdom feels lesser when put in the context of Anderson's filmography especially having the context of what would come next from the director after Moonrise Kingdom.
The character motivations also suffer from this. Sam and Suzy do get plenty of development and feel memorable as characters but nearly everyone else in the film fails to go beyond just being performances and characters of style rather than substance. Even with characters that are given something seemingly of substance in the plot such as Suzy's mother (Frances McDormand) cheating on her husband (Bill Murray), the film never really gives the character time to explain their actions or get into their mindsets to where those plot details would lead to actual substance. Other than the quirky performances from the side characters, there is nothing from them to make their characters memorable or impactful.
Moonrise Kingdom more than any other film from Wes Anderson feels like it suffers from style over substance. The film is so concerned with creating a memorable world (which it completely succeeds at) that it simply doesn't give enough focus to the characters or story. It isn't that the film is bad, the characters are likable and it does eventually get there with the two main characters. Mostly, Moonrise Kingdom feels lesser when put in the context of Anderson's filmography especially having the context of what would come next from the director after Moonrise Kingdom.