MOONRISE KINGDOM (PG)
When: August 30
Where: General release
Preview:Stephen A Russell
Wes Anderson, the king of kook responsible for quirky classics The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox, returns with the sepia-hued Moonrise Kingdom.
It’s a seemingly simple tale of two 12-year-old boy-meets-girl runaways, but nothing is quite so straightforward. This year’s Cannes opener is a gloriously wild romp set on the fantastically realised island of New Penzance in 1965, where normality is extreme, and there’s a storm a’coming too.
Beautiful young actress Kara Hayward plays Suzy Bishop, a troubled kid daubed in shocking turquoise eyeliner with a devastating pout to match. Smothered at home by her trio of brothers and simultaneously overbearing and oddly absent parents (played in understated comic fashion by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand), Suzy plans her escape with kindred spirit Sam.
Sam (Jared Gilman) is an orphan and refugee from a somewhat twisted scout camp run by the smoking do-gooder Scout Master Ward – Ed Norton in fine form.
When they flee, full of youthful ambition, hopeful dreams and unusually adult cynicism, they spark a huge manhunt of odd characters including the harsh Social Services – a character played with swishing-cape action by a gleefully evil Tilda Swinton – and the violent scouts who so tormented Sam.
Bruce Willis does his best work in quite some time as the island’s cop, Captain Sharp, and his story deftly mirrors that of young Sam, whom he soon takes under his wing.
Even a begrudging cynic should raise a smile at this good-humoured yarn.
Infused with a fairytale sense of yesteryear, punctuated on occasion with comically exaggerated violence, Anderson delivers lush visuals and off-the-wall humour from all his players.
The fantastic cast works wonders with what are sometimes small roles, but it’s the young leads that truly captivate and show immense promise.
Whether it’s Suzy causing chaos with a pair of scissors or Sam preparing for their first night camping out together, casually alerting her to the fact he might wet the bed, they hold the viewer in thrall.
