This beautiful coming-of-age comedy is about a pair of young lovers Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop. After sparking a penpal relationship, they arrange to run away from home on their remote New England island, though only for 10 days. Armed with his scouting enquipment and she with her pet cat and a record player they cope remarkably well and fall in love. Their parents and guardians however are at their witsend and as a hurricane reportedly approaches the island, concern grows for their safety.
Directed by Wes Anderson and cowritten by him and Roman Coppola, this film is sumptuous to watch. The cinematography is beautiful. At first it looks slightly two dimensional like South Park, but it is an acquired taste that quickly grows on you. Every shot tells a story and were this thirty years ago when stills from the film were on show outside the cinema, you’d be hard pushed to whittle it down to a shortlist.
Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward both make a fantastic debut with support from quite an impressive cast including Bill Murray & Francis McDormand as Suzy’s attorney parents, Bruce Willis as the local policeman Captain Sharp, Tilda Swinton as the Social Services and Harvey Keitel, quirkily dapper in scout-leader uniform, as Commander Pierce! My favourite character, however, was the sharp, officious yet slightly tragic figure portrayed by Edward Norton as Scoutmaster Ward. And Lucas Hedges deserves a mention as the bullies heroic leader!
It’s a shame that this movie has only been nominated for writing as I am hard pushed to not be impressed by the whole package. It was reminiscent of Richard Ayoade’s debut film Submarine – if you enjoyed that, you’ll love this. [rating=5]