Every now and again there are moments of real depth.
It's not relentlessly shallow. I was particularly moved by hints of sadness and
complexity floating through the portrayals of the adult characters by Frances
McDormand, Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, and Edward Norton. Their supporting
performances are a joy to behold. I wish they had had more screen time.
Children occupy most of the film's screen time. First-time
actors Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward play 12-year-old misfits who become soul-mates
at the very moment they cast eyes on each other. He is an orphan being passed
around from foster home to foster home. She comes from a big family led by
self-absorbed lawyers (McDormand and Murray) who keep big secrets from each
other.
The boy and girl write to each other (old-fashioned
hand-written letters: priceless) over the course of a year or so, commiserating
about their social alienation and endless failed attempts to fit in. They
decide to break free from a disappointing culture, run away together, and live
in the woods. As a Cub Scout, he has learned enough camping skills for them to
survive, he believes. Incidentally, the affectionate parody of the Cub Scouts
(here called Khaki Scouts) is brilliant.
The film opens with them running away and beginning their
adventure in the woods. The girl's parents and the boy's Scoutmasters then
embark on a search to find them. Here and there we learn their back story
through flashbacks. We also learn bits and pieces about the adults as the
search gets under way.
Overall, I would describe the film as a celebration of
smart, artistically inclined children who never quite fit in (Wes Anderson
himself?). There's also a sizable dollop of love directed to orphans of any
kind. How difficult must it be to find your way in a scary world when you don't
have parents or a home that feels like your own. This at times reduced me to
tears.
At one point the girl tells the boy that she wishes she were
an orphan. Orphans are the best characters in literature, she says. Their lives
are so much more interesting. The boy replies, "I love you, but you don't
know what you're talking about." The pain of being orphaned travels across
his gentle face in a way that has stayed with me for days.
Anderson doesn't allow the film to drift too deeply into
sadness, however. The film is more comedy than tragedy. But these moments of
hurt anchor the film and give it weight. If Anderson can continue to make films
this good, he just may turn into a filmmaker of major stature. Now having seen
the film, I'm not surprised that Cannes chose it to open the festival this
year. A wonderful selection.
Final note: the film is co-written by Roman Coppola, son of
Francis Ford Coppola. I cannot get over the amount of talent in that family.
The Coppolas are the Kennedys of the American arts. They are a national treasure.
2 comments:
What did you think of Rushmore?
I actually haven't seen that Anderson pic. It's amazing the number of people who have recommended it to me lately. I have put it at the top of my Netflix queue, so I should be seeing it soon.
Post a Comment