Moonrise Kingdom

Movie: Moonrise Kingdom

Genre: coming-of-age comedy

Synopsis: This is a tough one to describe.  It takes place on a small New England island with a few inhabitants.  It also has a Boy Scout camp run by Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton).  One of his scouts is Sam (Jared Gilman).  Sam marches to the beat of a different drum – and is universally disliked by the other scouts. Walt and Laura Bishop (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) are a married couple.  They are both lawyers and live on the island with their two sons and an 11-ish daughter, Suzy (Kara Hayward).  The Police Chief (and only officer) of the island is Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis).  Last but not least, is Social Services (no other name) played by Tilda Swinton.  The movie begins three days before an historic hurricane strikes the island.  Sam is smitten with Suzy.  He runs away from the camp, meets up with Suzy – and the two of them run away.  They are soon being tracked/chased/hunted on land, sea and air by Scout Master Ward, the entire Boy Scout Troop, Suzy’s parents, and Captain Sharp. 

My two cents: I loved this movie.  I have not figured out how to convey the delight of the movie.  One minute a fully armed (with knives, bows and arrows, sticks, a BB rifle and a motorcycle) troop is attacking Suzy and Sam.  The next scene has the entire troop running away – terrorized by Suzy.  The dialog is great.  If you enjoy off-beat coming of age movies, you absolutely have to see this movie.  I have never seen a movie that had such quirky writing coupled with impossible (at least for me) visual tricks.

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