I will be shocked if this wins. Especially over Zero Dark Thirty or even Django Unchained. Wes Anderson's movies have always been hit or miss for me. I liked The Royal Tenebaums and Fantastic Mr. Fox but I thought The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was a complete snooze. This one falls more to the middle right of that line. It was better than Life Aquatic but I still didn't really like it.
Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward) are 12-year-olds in love who decide to run away together. The year is 1965. Sam deserts his Khaki Scouts troop and Suzy runs away from home on the island of New Penzance. Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) notifies the island police officer (Bruce Willis) of the missing boy but when they call the mainland, they discover that Sam is actually an orphan in foster care and his foster family no longer want him. They refer the authorities to Child Services (Tilda Swinton), who informs them that the boy is looking at a future in Juvenile Refuge and possibly electroshock therapy. Once the young pair are caught, but a last minute change-of-heart by the Scout Troop sees them freed and runnin again, this time into the teeth of a major storm.
Honestly, I didn't find this movie to be funny or quirky or charming. I found it to be saccharine and almost unbearably twee. Not to mention that part of it seemed almost pornographically exploitative of the two child leads. Kara Hayward spends most of the running time in either a borderline indecently-short dress or in her underwear. Granted, she is 14 not 12, but it's still an underage girl in her underwear. I don't consider myself a prudish person, but I also don't think children should be sexualized.
Maybe you'll watch it and think that it's silly and I'm making a big deal out of nothing. That's your right. For me, I'd never recommend this to anyone.
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