Fugitives from justice. Snippets and slices of life. Fights, brawls, arguments, misunderstandings. Reconciliation and reaffirmation.
And ear piercing, too - ouch! That hurts. But Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward) wants Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) to do the other ear. An interesting analogy.
Discovering sex, but innocently. Sam gets a hard-on and Suzy tells him to feel her breasts. Man, it's so difficult to be a kid, isn't it? To face that first crush, their "puppy love," with stupid parents who don't understand (or want to understand) their own kids. Sigh...
Motives get twisted out of shape, overblown into something adults are incapable of comprehending. The awkwardness, the stumbling for answers, the insecurity of one's movements. A whole lot of living in a barely lived life.
As in all of Wes Anderson's films, Moonrise Kingdom overflows with many such vignettes. Short scenes, brief spurts of all-out slapstick comedy; tender moments and mildly amusing bits of business; fleeting glimpses of life's simple pleasures (such as dating, jumping into an ice-cold lake, fishing for little turtles, cooking outdoors, getting one's ears pierced, or sleeping together under the stars).
At times, youthful earnestness turns individuals into budding homebodies. Partying by a campfire, picking flowers at random. Who does these things nowadays? Anyone? Here, they're executed with a knowing, primal innocence. When Suzy's dad, Mr. Bishop (a potbellied Bill Murray) lifts the tent to reveal her and Sam holding on to each other for dear life, he flies into a rage - or pretends he does. The kids think they're about to face the music, their father's wrath, for alleged "sins of the flesh."
They cringe, they cower. They feel the wrath. Oh, no! Here comes the blows! But wait: Mr. Bishop throws the tent to the side. His rage subsides as he walks off to cool his anger down. Realizing that what he's really lost is his passion for his wife, Mrs. Bishop (Frances McDormand), he slips out unseen. She, on the other hand, drags her daughter away to give her the beating of her life - or so she imagines. Not that Mrs. Bishop will actually do it, mind you. Just a passing thought.
The Khaki Scouts also feel bad about how they've mistreated Sam. To compensate, they plan a "breakout" whereby they'll rescue both Sam and Suzy from their fate, as if Sam were serving a life sentence, a minor fugitive from justice, who needs some form of rehabilitation. Meanwhile, Mrs. Bishop tries to give hubby the brush off (wink, wink), but she gets second thoughts.
As planned, the scouts sneak Sam out of Police Captain Sharp's barge. On cue, storm clouds thunder into action. We get another weather report from that intrusive narrator (Bob Balaban), our makeshift garden gnome. Still, like the lawyers they both are, the battling Bishops argue their individual cases along with their personal issues - specifically, her affair with the sad, dumb policeman (Bruce Willis). In comparison, Suzy entertains the scouts with her storybook readings. What better way to put everyone to sleep?
Back at Camp Ivanhoe, Scoutmaster Ward (Edward Norton), the poorest "ward" on record, puzzles over the absence of his troop. There's a big jamboree to attend, but no one's around! At the other extreme, Suzy's adult cousin (Jason Schwartzman) prepares a non-legally binding marriage ceremony. Suzy and Sam decide to join hands as... what? Boy and girl? With the Khaki Scouts as witnesses, both Sam and Suzy sail away on their "honeymoon barge." But to where?
Wait! They're back! Suzy forgot her binoculars. Okay, so where are they? Ah, that snot-nosed Redford has them! He's recovering from the scissor wound that Suzy inflicted him with earlier on. Why, that mean, little kid! Sam attacks Redford as the storm approaches - violent acts beget violent acts, one suspects.
A mad chase ensues, an episode straight out of a Buster Keaton movie. The entire camp follows Sam around the field. Up and down, over hill and over dale. At the height of hilarity, Sam is hit by a bolt of lightning. Gasp! His face turns charcoal black from the lightning strike. Undeterred, Sam leads the troop to higher ground. Wouldn't you know it, but the storm waters have breached the dam as the other scout troops trot off to perform some rescue work of their own.
For his failed efforts at keeping the kids at bay, Scoutmaster Ward gets stripped of his command. But the storm gets worse and worse, as flood waters rush in, engulfing the aged Commander Pierce (Harvey Keitel as a Lord Baden-Powell lookalike).
We cut to a sign outside the chapel: "Noye's Fludde" CANCELLED. Damn, how ironic! The scouts meet up in the chapel, in time for Police Captain Sharp's confrontation with the one-track-minded Social Services lady (seriously snippy Tilda Swinton). She berates both Sharp and Ward (who's finally figured out where everyone is). After more bickering, all eyes refocus on the chapel's balcony. Aha! There they are! Sam and Suzy are disguised as foxes (how clever, those sly little devils!).
Meanwhile, the storm thunders forth, unchecked. Sam and Suzy walk gingerly out on a ledge to the roof. Sharp follows with rope in hand. At this point, the music picks up Noye's Fludde where it left off. The performance may have been cancelled, but the storm rages on!
One final farewell hug and... GOTCHA! Sharp is able to hold on to both Suzy and Sam in a comical silhouette that mimics a 1960s comic strip - a fitting climax to our tale. As in all good bedtime stories, all's well that (um, seemingly) ends well: Police Captain Sharp assumes responsibility for parenthood, even though he's unmarried. Sam agrees to the union. No more suicide attempts, either. That's a relief!
There's one final narration by our garden gnome. The town has been reconstructed. A recapitulation by a young boy, on a long-playing record player, revisits the fugue-like finale to Britten's A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.
The story ends in a fast-paced flourish. But the lives of Sam and Suzy remain open-ended. Sam still sneaks into her bedroom for a fleeting moment of togetherness. Suzy still gazes down at him through her binoculars. She blows him a kiss. Sam smiles shyly back at her.
Heaving a wistful sigh, she leaves her bedroom. But not before she stops to gander at a painting that Sam has been working on. It's a landscape of the place where they spent their happiest moments, along the sandy shoreline of the Island of Penzance. Underneath the painting, Sam scribbled the name of their peaceful abode: "Moonrise Kingdom."
Fade out. The last of the children's chorus intones a comforting "cuckoo, cuckoo," which derives from a section of Noye's Fludde. The residents have been washed clean of sin and temptation. All is well, as it should be.
Copyright © 2023 by Josmar F. Lopes
