Author Topic: Bob Balaban's performance in Moonrise Kingdom  (Read 932 times)

Jer

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Bob Balaban's performance in Moonrise Kingdom
« on: August 12, 2012, 09:22:09 PM »
I don't know why but I have really latched on to this performance like no other this year. Balaban has perhaps three minutes of screentime in total and yet I believe that he, along with Bill Murray, give the two best performances of the year in my favorite film of the year. 

His presence in this film has puzzled and delighted me ever since I saw it. He is credited as "the narrator" but does very little narrating. He is more of a human map or weather radar, giving out geographic and storm tracking information. There is no practical reason for him to be in Moonrise Kingdom at all....and yet I believe his presence might just be the most important.

I get the sense that Balaban's nameless character is a very powerful figure who is controlling the island and the events of the story somehow. He cuts such a strong impression, seems to know everything, provides a very needed turn of events at a very important moment (A "deus-ex-machina", if you will), yet stands completely outside of the story. He does not interact with the characters at all except.....

(SPOILER)

...when he tells the adults exactly where Sam and Suzy are. A very essential turning point.

I think of this character as a Prospero-esque magician, using his magic to manipulate and move events along. I believe that the storm that comes is of his own creation and that the entire plot is being masterminded by him. Balaban's appearance only makes the character more interesting. Here is a weak-looking man who seems to wield such power.

Bill Murray, in contrast, is a stronger looking man who is very weak on the inside.

 

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