Finally watched this film. I skipped it in the cinema – at no big loss, it seems. I found it to be Aronowsky's weakest film so far. He's never been a subtle director, but here he takes a step into Oliver Stone Country. The film is very one note - Ooh, the mirrors! - harping on the theme of doubles. There are plenty of horror film scares, but it's never really creepy – not in the way the best Polanski films are. It's another film that would maybe have been better without CGI – if they'd rather gone for more creative solutions. Also, and a bit of SPOILERS here, I don't find the way Nathalie Portman loses her mind towards the end to be credible. The mix of things that really happen and things going on only in her head never really adds up. It's a movie version of losing your mind, not how it would be in real life. I guess! Maybe, who knows...
Wes Anderson has one problem: his second film, Rushmore, was a masterpiece, and all his films after that have been... good, but not quite as good as Rushmore (Fantastic Mr Fox being an exception). Moonrise Kingdom is a step up from Life Aquatic and Darjeeling Limited but still... I wish we had spent some more time with the adults. Possibly that would have tipped the film off balance, but none of the adults seemed as real as, say, Seymour Cassel's character from Rushmore. Even though the actors, including Bruce Willis, do a good job. But I think I liked the film, and look forward to re-watching it on dvd. Visually the film is a delight, as always with Wes Anderson.
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