Moonrise Kingdom

Coastal New England, summer of 1965, the island of New Penzance, a never-never land for two young people considered odd by adults. That’s the premise of Moonrise Kingdom, and in such a strange way it works. The words “delightful,” “charming,” and “wryly humorous” come to mind. It’s the kind of humor that’s kept inside the viewers with an occasional outward chuckle, not the spastic hilarity of one of Adam Sandler’s questionable comedies. It’s filmed as a sort of fairy tale, with sets and people that might have come from one of the fantasy books Suzy carries with her. The opening segment shows us a house much like a dollhouse, with one side cut away to present all the rooms as though there were no fourth wall. The Bishops (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) have three small boys and an older girl named Suzy (Kara Hayward), who spends much of her time viewing the world around her through the binoculars she’s never without. The scene shifts to Camp Ivanhoe and the Khaki Scout troop, led by troop leader Edward Norton. Sam (Jared Gilman) is an orphan who has a plan to run away with Suzy, following a trail to the far end of the island. Suzy meets him in a meadow, carrying with her a suitcase and a picnic basket holding her kitten. In the suitcase she has three overdue library books and a battery-operated record player she’s borrowed from one of her brothers. Sam is carrying a backpack with everything he needs to set up camp, including an air rifle and a small pup tent. The two are in love, and show their love innocently with lip-to-lip kisses, graduating to French kisses. The rest of the story has to do with their innocence and their flight from various groups—the scout troop and town adults led by the police chief (Bruce Willis). All this while a hurricane rushes toward the island. Half a century ago, and we see the semi-innocence of those times: people smoke cigarettes but never seem to inhale; McDormand and Willis are having an affair but never seem to touch except for sharing a cigarette; one of the boy scouts, with a white patch over his left eye, is referred to as “Lazy Eye”; Sam catches a turtle with “Albert” written on the bottom of the shell; Suzy catches a fish which Sam cleans and cooks, the fish coming out of the pan looking like something from Wendy’s. I think I’d like to see this movie again, just to see if I’ve missed something. You go see it too, and let me know what you think.