Wistful, whimsical, wondrous -- must be Wes

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Niko Tavernise / Focus Features Above, Frances McDormand and Bill Murray play bickering parents; below, from left, Kara Hayward, Jared Gilman and Jason Schwartzman. (BLOOMBERG THE WASHINGTON POST)

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From left, Kara Hayward, Jared Gilman and Jason Schwartzman. (NIKO TAVERNISE / FOCUS FEATURES)

After his stop-motion animated movie Fantastic Mr. Fox, director Wes Anderson returns to the real world, or at least as real as Wes Anderson ever gets, with this drily funny, storybook-pretty tale of pre-teen runaways, and the adults who hunt for them.

Sam (Jared Gilman) is a kid poured from the mould of Jason Schwartzman's rebellious hero in Anderson's Rushmore, precocious, free of self-doubt, and single-minded in his pursuit of what he wants.

What he wants is Suzy (Kara Hayward), the beautiful fellow 12-year-old girl he spies in a church choir production of Noah's Ark. (She plays a raven.) When he seeks her out in a backstage dressing room, their meeting has the momentous spark of Romeo getting a glimpse of Juliet, except this union is only embryonically sexual.

After a secret, highly romantic exchange of letters -- this is pre-texting 1965 -- Sam escapes from the scout camp where he has been plotting to put his wilderness skills to good use on this romantic escapade, much to the surprise of his kind-hearted scoutmaster, Ward (Edward Norton).

Suzy, on the other hand, is giving up a cushy life in a lighthouse-like New England summer home. Her imagination nurtured on romantic girls adventure books (which she packs in a suitcase and shleps through the forest), Suzy isn't just running off with Sam, she's running away from her bickering lawyer parents (Frances McDormand and Bill Murray), who address each other as "Counsellor" even in bed.

Suzy, forever looking through her binoculars, can see mom is surreptitiously enjoying a dalliance with Capt. Sharp (Bruce Willis), the cop who patrols their quiet little vacation community.

The hunt is on. Ward rallies his scout troop with a pep talk: "This is not just a rescue party. This is a great scouting opportunity." Capt. Sharp competently organizes a search party. And Suzy's parents are obliged to take a sober look at the family dynamics that inspired their daughter to fly the tastefully appointed coop.

The clock is ticking too, with a helpful cartographer/narrator (Bob Balaban) offering warnings that a destructive storm is about to befall this lush forest paradise.

Well-performed, especially from the startlingly good juvenile actors, Moonrise Kingdom feels rather like Fantastic Mr. Fox in that its cool esthetic is lifted from children's literature, except here, that ambience of innocence is effortlessly synthesized into a more eccentric family drama more reminiscent of other Anderson films such as The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic.

In the foreground, the movie is a celebration of youthful passion and purpose, but lurking behind that, the adults in the cast offering a wistful, sad forecast of estrangement, doubt and compromise to come.

A storm is coming indeed.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Other voices

Selected excerpts from reviews of Moonrise Kingdom:

Though undeniably smart and charming, Moonrise Kingdom loves itself the way the callow Holden Caulfield loves himself: unconditionally. Salinger understood the problem with that. Anderson may not.

-- Rafer Guzman, Newsday

Anderson has trouble sticking the landing, but Moonrise Kingdom is in many ways the most satisfying flight he's taken us on in years.

-- Shawn Levy, Oregonian

I loved every second of Moonrise Kingdom.

-- Chris Hewitt, St. Paul Pioneer Press

If it's not as deft as his most adorable confections, it's still got plenty to chew on and chuckle over for initiates in the Cult of Wes.

-- Roger Moore, McClatchy Tribune News Service

Like all Wes Anderson movies, it is naïve, mannered, pretentious and incomprehensible.

-- Rex Reed, New York Observer

Anderson's mind must be an exciting place for a story idea to be born.

-- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

A gorgeously shot, ingeniously crafted, über-Andersonian bonbon that, even in its most irritatingly whimsical moments, remains an effective deliverer of cinematic pleasure.

-- Dana Stevens, Slate

If you love Wes Anderson, you'll love this: The best of what he can do is vibrantly on display.

-- Christy Lemire, Associated Press

-- Compiled by Shane Minkin

Movie review

Moonrise Kingdom

Starring Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman

Polo Park

PG

94 minutes

Four out of five stars

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 15, 2012 D4