Monday, March 18, 2013
Adoptive Movie Guide: Moonrise Kingdom
Sam is spending time with the Khaki Scouts, taking a break
from living at his foster home. His parents died recently. His behavior in the
home, and at the camp, has been problematic. He feels unpopular, but he has
made one friend. Suzy, the daughter of two belligerent local lawyers, also acts
out. She is replaced in a church play, and is crushed to find that her mother
is reading a book about raising “your very troubled child.” Suzy feels alone,
but she has made one friend. Sam and Suzy have secretly exchanged letters for a
year. They finally agree to meet. They each run away – Suzy from home, Sam from
camp, and both from their experiences of loneliness.
How is This Relevant
to Adoption / Foster Care?
Sam
is in foster care because his parents died. Citing Sam’s behaviors as their
reason, his foster parents decide that they will not allow him to return to
their home after camp. Social Services is coming to take Sam back to a group
home, but a local adult cares about Sam and offers to foster him. Sam seeks for belonging (and finds it with
Suzy, some scouts, and his final foster dad.)
Strong Points
Moonrise
Kingdom depicts feelings of discouragement, the struggle to find belonging, and
a cause for hope. Sam is able to stay in his city because one of the men in
town cares about him and decides to foster him.
Sam
confronts one of his tormenters directly, asking, “Why do you consider me your
enemy?” He doesn’t get a good answer, and ends up fighting the boy – but his
directness in asking the question is admirable.
Challenges
This movie has the potential to be painful, and the potential to foster a lot of positive discussions. Sam is unpopular at camp; he is awkward (think Dwight Schrute), and many of his fellow Scouts seem to dislike him. When he runs away from the camp, he expresses,”the rest of the troop is probably glad that I’m leaving.” These emotions and thoughts – feeling unwanted and unliked - are familiar to many kids in foster care. The movie eventually shows many scouts deciding to help Sam, an adult deciding to foster him, and a girl falling in love with him.
Kids
talk insensitively about the intimate details of Sam’s life, speculating about
the death of his parents. This will ring true to many folks connected to foster
care and adoption.
In
one scene, Suzy tells Sam, “I wish I was an orphan. Almost all of my favorite
characters are. It seems like your lives are more special.” This reminds me of
Deanna Shrodes’ post about things you should never say to adoptees. Sam
responds, “I love you, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Social
Services is portrayed by Tilda Swinton (the White Witch from Narnia), and
although she’s a bit brusque and rule-bound, she’s not as bad as other
professional social-worker-type characters I’ve reviewed. (Despicable Me’s MissHattie comes to mind.)
Sam
and his new foster father have a trusting, mentor-like relationship, but some
elements of their relationship aren’t so good: the man offers Sam beer and also
sneaks him into his girlfriend’s house.
Sam
feels as though he is getting close to having a family at his foster home;
unbeknownst to him, they’ve already decided to have him removed from their care.
For kids who’ve been bounced between foster homes, this could be traumatic.
Kids feel rejected when they’re moved from home to home to home, and young
viewers of this film will need to be reassured that there is nothing they can
do that would make them lose their place in your family.
Come
to think of it, whether you’re a foster parent or an adoptive parent, please
make a commitment not to have kids moved from your home. Fostering (and
especially adopting) are supposed to mean treating a child as your own. You
wouldn’t kick out your own child for swearing, saying hateful things, or
breaking some heirlooms – so you shouldn’t kick out a foster or adoptive child
either.
Weak Points
There’s
lots of tobacco use and some underage alcohol use. There are some
non-life-threatening injuries, and one character is struck by lightning (but
not injured.) Sam and Suzy both running away from home could also be troubling
to some viewers, and some parents will object to their children seeing Sam and
Suzy’s explorations of each other. (They are 14, and they see each other in
their underwear.) A dog is killed. Suzy and Sam are (unofficially) married by a
Scout employee. Suzy’s mom is having an affair with the police chief. Suzy
knows. Kids are mean.
Recommendations
There
are some parts of Moonrise Kingdom that will be objectionable to parents of
young kids, but the movie is shot and presented in a way that at least feels
innocent – and maybe a little bit “off.” It’s rated PG-13. With parental
guidance, the film could be powerful for kids ages 12 and up.
Questions for Discussion after the movie
How do you think Sam and Suzy felt right before they ran
away? How about at the end of the movie?
Suzy views the world through binoculars to make the world
seem closer, even when it’s not physically far away. Why do you think she does
that?
Have you ever felt like your life story was talked about by
lots of people? How did you feel about that?
When have you wanted to tell someone, “I love you, but you
don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Sam felt alone – did you see anyone in the film who cared
about him? (Suzy, Scoutmaster Ward, The Captain Sharp, Other Scouts, maybe even
Social Services.)
How does Social Services compare with social workers you’ve
met?
Sam and Suzy both want to go on adventures when they grow up
- -to avoid getting stuck in one place. But really, when they say that, neither
one of them is stuck; in fact, they’re floating loosely. What do you think’s
going on? (They might be saying this
to protect themselves from the pain of feeling like they don’t belong
anywhere.)
Why did Sam’s foster parents decide not to have him back?
What other decisions could they have made? What would have been the right thing
for them to do?
Find this review helpful? You might also like these other Adoption Movie Guides:
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Oz the Great and Powerful
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Twilight
Find this review helpful? You might also like these other Adoption Movie Guides:
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Oz the Great and Powerful
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Twilight
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How timely -- my family and I watched this just last night. And your synopsis and recommendations are spot on.
ReplyDeleteI thought it interesting that the film anthropomorphized Social Services as a person. I mean, that was the name of Tilda Swinton's character! I liked the scene where she and the police officer started throwing their respective books at each other.
I wonder if sometimes folks view social workers as "the system" rather than as individual human beings. And honestly, I wonder how often social workers view themselves that way, too. And how often they view their clients as "clients" rather than as individuals. Colbert had the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" - maybe social workers & their clients can have a "Rally to Restore Individuality and/or Understanding."
DeleteWhen I saw this film and Suzy said that horrible line about wanting to be an orphan, I took a pained, deep breath in. I was *very* pleasantly surprised with Sam's response, "I love you, but you don't know what you're talking about." I wanted to thank Roman Coppola and Wes Anderson for writing that line; we need more of that type of response out there. Problem is, this is a "quirky" movie, and can Sam's responses be written off as just odd? Not to mention, this film probably won't appeal to the kind of people who need to hear that line, anyway. It's preaching to the choir, probably, although I do have many new acquaintances tell me how "lucky' I am to be adopted, etc.
ReplyDeleteI thought Sam's responses was perfect. "You're not a bad person. I don't hate you. But... seriously?" It is a really quirky film, but somehow, that one line rang out as way more "true" than "quirky."
DeleteSo how to get this film into the mainstream?
How Wes Anderson stitches it all together is far beyond the reach of most filmmakers. His approach is artful without pretension, gorgeous and composed without feeling forced, charming and innocent but never trite.
ReplyDeleteGrace Crawford (Information about Aviation One Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Services)