Where The Wild Things Are Review

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 10.16.2009

"Let the wild rumpus start!" Spike Jonze at long last brings the classic children's book to the cinemas. But what's the result? Jeffrey Harris checks in with his full review of Where The Wild Things Are.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Directed By: Spike Jonze
Written By: Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers; Based on the book by Maurice Sendak
Runtime: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language.
Official Site: Where The Wild Things Are.com



Max - Max Records
Mom - Katherine Keener
The Boyfriend - Mark Ruffalo
The Teacher - Steve Mouzakis
Claire - Pepita Emmerichs
Carol - James Gandolfini (voice)
Douglas - Chris Cooper (voice)
Ira - Forest Whitaker (voice)
Judith - Catherine O'Hara (voice)
Alexander - Paul Dano (voice)
KW - Lauren Ambrose (voice)
The Bull - Michael Berry, Jr. (voice)

It took Academy Award nominated director, Spike Jonze, nearly ten years to bring the highly acclaimed and loved childrens' picture book, Where The Wild Things Are, to the screen. Now it's finally here. But how dooes one adapt a book that's less than 350 words (less than your average movie review)?

The basic story of Sendak's book is the same except the place where the Wild Things actually are does not grow out of Max's room after being punished, Max actually runs away from home. Max's sister, Claire (Emmerichs), has become a teenager and she's talking to boys and hanging out with her friends rather than paying attention to Max. Max's loving, warm, and caring mother (Keener) is having difficulties with work and giving some of her attentions to her boyfriend (Ruffalo). The story does not delve any deeper into these elements other than what is seen from Max's point of view. Most likely in a bid for attention, Max dresses up in his favorite wolf costume and acts up, getting into a spat with his overworked mother and in a fit of anger bites her and runs away in anger and shame. In doing so, Max finds a little sail boat he sails away in and takes to a remote island where he meets the wild things.

The Wild Things are an emotional, playful, but also prone to depression bunch. They have a ragtag community but they long for a "king" to rule over them and make them happy all the time. Max happens upon them and senses a kindred spirit in the sad and lonely Carol (Gandolfini), who is taking to destroying the huts of the Wild Things without anyone really listening or caring. Max rushes in and takes part in destroying the huts to the delight of Carol but to the chagrin of Wild Things Judith (O'Hara) and Ira (Whitaker). In a lie to keep himself from being eaten, Max proclaims he was a king of the Vikings with special powers and in short the Wild Things declare Max their new king. Since the Wild Things themselves are a product of Max's imagination and Max's desire and longing for his own world with everything he wants, the Wild Things imaginations work much the same way as Max as well. In trying to rule over the Wild Things along with their wild mood swings, Max's seemingly idyllic world that he created is not so idyllic after all.

In executing Sendak's story, Jonze shoots the movie more with the sensibilities of an indie filmmakers. The movie looks and sounds like much more like a heady, indie drama than a silly kids film. Jonze more than succeeds in his proclamation that he would not make a film that's patronizing or talks down to kids. There's nothing dumbed down about this film. There are things that the Wild Things and Max say and do that are silly but there's always an underlying meaning to those events or dialogues and at times a quiet sadness.

The other important element of the execution is that Jonze shoots and edits the movie with a feel almost as if you are viewing the picture from the eyes of a young child. The movie begins loud, blaring, and quickly, showing hand-held footage of Max running around the house wildly in his costume with a fork and chasing after his dog. And right seemingly in the middle of this sequence is a quick, sudden, and awkward transition cut to a much quieter scene of Max playing by himself in the snow across the street. In a way, this style almost makes Max more than just a protagonist but in a way the actual storyteller or director. Much like, the world of the Wild Things grows from Max's own imagination, the film itself has grown from Max's imagination as well.

Great things can not be said enough about the creation of the Wild Things in this movie, brought to life by large, practical and mechanical costumes by the Jim Henson company with enhanced with digitally inserted faces for those more intimately complex facial expressions and movements. For the Wild Things there's a quality similar to that of the Muppets. They look and act like giant Sesame Street characters, but much like those puppets we grew up to love and believe in throughout or lives, the Wild Things have no less character, emotions, and reality and they are treated as such.

Max's actor, coincidentally also named Max, carries the film amazingly on his back like a true thespian. Quite often child actors such as Max come off as repulsive, annoying, or a detriment to the film itself. Max under Jonze's directions maintains in keeping the character the most interesting and compelling one in the movie, not to be upstaged by 10 foot monsters of miraculous marriage of practical and visual effects.
In a world where we are constantly worried and nitpicky on how to handle, medicate, and bring up our children where because of this or that, the child could be damaged, autistic, or a few incidents away from bringing a gun to school and joining the trenchcoat mafia, the movie in my own personal interpretation suggests that maybe there's simply nothing wrong with our kids. If you truly observe Max's behavior, its not unlike how just about any of us were at his age, talking to walls and fences and calling forth armies, or building things in the snow or having a snowball fight or wanting to rough house and then the rough housing goes too far and someone gets hurt and starts bawling. All that will permanently be a part of childhood and that doesn't mean there's something wrong with your children. When Max's mom is experiencing a very low moment, Max inspires and uplifts her with a little story he just comes up with on the spot and only a child would be able to do that. Even when Carol is at his most threatening, its not unlike Max's initial outbursts. There's still love there.

The 411: Jonze has made a special, personal, and amazing movie in interpreting the classic story. The score and look of the movie is fantastic and truly inspiring. This isn't a dark and scary movie where it would be wrong to take your kids, but watching the movie, one wonders what kind of audience this film will draw. But don't let dissuade you from yourself and your families enjoying this wonderful, marvelous, and uplifting film.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]