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| Where the Wild Things Are |
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Starring: Max Records, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo, Forest Whitaker, James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O'Hara, Michael Berry Jr., Chris Cooper, Paul Dano, Steve Mouzakis, Angus Sampson
Rated: PG
Total Score : 
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If you enter the theater to watch Where the Wild Things Are expecting a literal rendition of Maurice Sendak's fantastic children's book, you will leave disappointed. If instead, you approach the Spike Jonze-directed movie as a stand-alone work of art, you will leave satisfied. The movie is an introspective, intense look at what it's like to be a little boy. Not simply the naughty little boy of the Sendak book, this Max (played by Max Records, in a stellar performance) has deeper issues. And the way this movie deals with these issues is not for the faint of heart, and it's also not for younger children. Wild Things is a rather dark journey into the psyche of this troubled, but ultimately good-hearted boy.
His father absent and his mother dating, Max finds himself struggling to deal with the pent-up hurt and rage that has built within him. Claire, his inconsiderate older sister, doesn't help matters, as she simply watches as her bully friends respond to Max's snowballs with an onslaught that nearly puts him in serious jeopardy. In his anger and frustration, Max trashes her room-the beginning of the descent that leads him to run away to the Wild Things. Along the way though, we see Max the Storyteller, Max the Needy Child, Max the Forgotten Boy, and several other incarnations of Max that will be played out later on in the characters of the Wild Things.
If there is one thing that caused me some pause in reviewing this movie, it was simply this: at points where it would have been very easy to adhere to Sendak's book, Mr. Jonze and his co-writer, Dave Eggers, chose not to do so. It is during Max's final mischief-making that these departures are most glaring. When Max finally loses control and bites his mother, instead of her sending him to bed without supper, he runs away. This also causes the wonderful scene in the book where his room dissolves and his bed shifts to a boat, to be replaced by Max simply finding a boat waiting for him at the edge of the water. As a fan of the book, I felt that would have been a rather easy way to "follow the book", even while taking the story to deeper, darker places.
Those issues aside, the movie picks up the pace once we meet the Wild Things. Each Wild Thing can be seen as a sort of representation of a side of Max that he must confront. From the acerbic, selfish Juliet, to the kind and compassionate KW; from boisterous and short-tempered Carol (brilliantly voiced by James Gandolfini) to the lonely and self-pitying Alexander, all the Wild Things serve Mr. Jonze vision of delving into the psyche of what it means to be a lonely little boy. The island of the Wild Things - while an untamed and dangerous place, certainly - is for Max, a place of refuge, at least initially. As the movie progresses, Max the King (crowned by his beastly new friends) is gradually replaced again by Max the Little Boy. The time on the island progresses from the Wild Rumpus, to KW's tender, "Please don't go. I'll eat you up, I love you so." As she leans close to Max, and utters this tender line; as Carol sprints across the desert sand to howl a final good-bye to his little friend, and Max howls his own loving farewell; I doubt that anyone can watch this scene and not feel a lump rise in their throat.
While I wish the homage that Jonze does pay the book would have been more overt and more extensive, in the end, the movie satisfies on an artistic level and an emotional level. The acting - both the voice actors and the live actors - is superb, and Eggers and Jonze's script is outstanding. This movie is not for the under-8 set, but children who are old enough to grasp the deeper themes of the movie - and the adults who love these children - will greatly enjoy this movie.
Reviewed by K. Scott Bailey
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ac1994
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Great Movie!!!!!!!!!
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TOOTIEGURL27
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my little girl loved it! i did not think it was all that great i have seen a lot of children movies and this was just not that good.
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