I’ll stop my typical whining and complaining and talk about something I ran across that I really like.
It’s the movie currently playing all around the city under the title Moonrise Kingdom. In the briefest of nutshells, it’s a charming Romeo and Juliet story set in the 1960′s but without the tragic ending.
Suzzy (Kara Hayward) and Sam (Jared Gilman) are newly pubescent early teens who have found themselves attracted to each other. Both are outsiders of sorts. Suzzy is a defiant girl with anger issues and no friends. Sam is an orphan in a summer camp run by a Boyscouts-like organization. He is rejected because he’s such a nerdy oddball.
They run off for an innocent camping tryst throwing her parents and his camp counselor into a tizzy that has them running to the local cop, played by Bruce Willis. A search ensues.
Suzzy is played very innocently despite looking a little older than she is in both the movie and real life (13). In fact, with her very short dress, which threatens to show her panties at any moment, and her knee socks, she adds tinges of the schoolgirl and jailbait fetishes to her otherwise presexual character. Sam, for his part, seems a bit too young emotionally for her, and yet, they’re perfect for each other.
That Suzzy is more innocent than she may appear is apparent when they, after jumping clothed into a bay, dance on the beach dressed only in their underwear as their outerwear dries. Her gyrations demonstrate she has no idea how to use her body to be sexy, and of course Sam’s dancing is even more ridiculous.
Moonrise Kingdom isn’t just Suzzy and Sam’s love story, it’s about how their innocent attraction to each other ennobles everyone else in their lives. I’ve given away enough of he plot. I’ll leave it to you to see the movie and discover the rest. I can safely predict that if you have a heart and remember your first pangs of love, this movie will leave you smiling.
