Review: Where the Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are
Directed by Spike Jonze
Starring Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose
Rated PG
CityBeat Rating: 8 out of 10
There may not be another film this year that has people as excited as
Where the Wild Things Are. Which makes sense, of course, since the source material (Maurice Sendak’s book, of course), holds a special place in the formative imaginations of countless individuals, even if it’s tough for them to express exactly what that place might be. But projects like this are tricky, because while expectations are high, most people don’t actually know what they’re expecting. Think about it: Where the Wild Things Are isn’t a particularly long book, and to be honest, it isn’t particularly involved. If you want to get heady about it (something I do all too often), here’s the summation: Where the Wild Things Are is about something all kids go through, trying to take control of their surroundings and their circumstances.
Now, it would be easy to say that Spike Jonze’s adaptation of the book isn’t anything like that. Except that if you go through the book again, you’ll see the precise jumping off points for everything in the movie. What’s challenging about this film, however, is that it is not the movie of Where the Wild Things Are. It is Spike Jonze’s movie of Where the Wild Things Are, and you have to decide whether or not that appeals to you. And the reason that’s important has less to do with whether or not you’re a fan of Jonze as a filmmaker and more to do with the fact that, as a seminal piece of children’s literature, everyone’s version would be entirely different. There is a great deal of emotion and beauty in this film, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to appeal to you, because you may well have an entirely different sense of what this book is about.
Briefly, however, our hero Max (Max Records) is a sad, lonely boy who is ignored by his older sister (Pepita Emmerichs) and who feels like his single mom (Catherine Keener) is making too much time for her boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo). After one night of making serious mischief and embarrassing her, he runs away, finds a boat, and sails to that place, well, where the Wild Things are. Each Thing is taken directly from Sendak’s book, giant lumbering creatures who are equally sad and lonely, and who quickly turn Max into their king. He does tell them to “Be still.” And there is a Wild Rumpus.
Sure, the Wild Things will appear too scary for some small children, but what’s considerably scarier is their emotional lives, which are far more evolved than they ever were in the book. Adults in the know should be able to tell that in this case, they’re the children. They all have their own personalities and accompanying celebrity voices, but the ones who truly stand out are K.W. (Lauren Ambrose) and Carol (James Gandolfini), who takes a great liking to the new king and sets out to do anything asked of him, as long as Max can keep the wild things not sad—which is a far cry from keeping them happy. All the voice actors, whose numbers include Chris Cooper, Paul Dano, Catherine O’Hara, and Forest Whitaker, create very real individuals, but it’s Gandolfini and Ambrose who really get to shine. Jonze and co-screenwriter Dave Eggers have created a microcosm of society, each of them jockeying for position and popularity, each of them dying just to be liked and not to feel alone. And Carol is, essentially, a Wild Thing not too terribly unlike Max.
So it’s a role reversal. Instead of being the child who must answer to bigger creatures, Max is the child to whom the bigger creatures answer. He is forced to see what his own emotional impact is on his mother and his sister. And that’s a very hard thing to do, for any person, no matter what their age.
Sure, that’s pretty profound stuff. And it’s where where Where the Wild Things Are, the movie, differs from Where the Wild Things Are, the book. It’s not just that Max gets lonely and decides to go home and have his dinner, which is what happens in the book. In the film, he has to grow up, even if it’s just a bit. Is that a problem? Not for me. I found it to be another jumping off point, a decision to take the film somewhere a little more profound and touching than the book ever could.
What a piece of, for the lack of a better word, crap! Moment after moment did my wife and I struggle to keep our eyes open during this hugely disappointing show. Appropriately, this movie should have been titled “Where My Money Got Wasted”.
Sure, the book was cute, but that’s where I would have preferred to keep my experience – in the book. I was tempted to walk out and ask for a refund, but my wife convinced me not to – we were there for our two daughters, 13 and 8 (our 13 year old was very disappointed as well). My advice; Don’t see it by yourself – take your kids and take PLENTY of NoDoze. It will save you the embarrassment of having your child nudging you to stop snoring.
john’s take on WTWTA reminds me of a comment I overheard while working in a video rental store back in the day. It was either a Woody Allen or Al Brooks comedy playing on the monitors around the store. So, after browsing the New Release section with his girlfriend for about ten minutes, this big guy in a Raiders jersey looks up really annoyed and stares at the monitors above him with a furrowed brow and open mouth. Then, he asks me: “IS THIS IS ALL THIS MOVIE IS, A BUNCH OF TALKING?”
John,
I am very much in agreement with you. My kids have all grown up on this book. We would memorize the lines and repeat them to each other. What I saw when I went to the movies with my kids was the most depressing children’s movie I ever saw about a most beloved book. He became king of the wild things, who were all mostly moody, angry, or depressed and not really wild at all. Ther was a parallel between Max’s unruly behavior and Carol’s unruly behavior. However, there were relationships amongst the wild things that were hard to understand (why some of them were paired is beyond me). As king, Max has a great idea to make Carol’s dream city a reality, they never finish it. They figure out he’s not really a king. The wild things all feel hopeless now. Carol gets angry, wants to kill Max. He leaves Carol, never accomplishes a thing, and the wild things are no better off then when Max arrived. On a possitive note, he goes home and reunites with a relieved Mother. DEPRESSING! I wanted to have drink afterwards.
Thanks for the good info…very good blog site.
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
Mega snoozefest.
How can I get my money back.
My kids hated it, and so did I.
In this blog post parents who missed the point… Well, miss the point.
Where The Wild Things Are is a children’s book, yes. But even as I read it as a kid is wasn’t hard to detect a sense of depression, lonliness and even a hint of bitterness in Max and the Wild Things.
I’m a bit shocked that people expected Spike Jonze to take a what? Twelve page book and adapt it seemlessly to the silver screen, especially in a day and age where movies have a habit of running 2+hours. I guess I missed the part of the marketing plan for this movie where “children’s movie” was stamped on it. Have any of you seen a Spike Jonze film?
I’m quite alright with people having varied opinions on movies, it’s like anyother art form it appeals to people in different ways. I’m just confused as to why parents are upset that it’s not a children’s movie and dove deeper into the underlying tones of the book considering who directed it the nature of films today… Well… The nature of any film that isn’t a special effects team’s wet dream of explosions, Lucasfilm CGI and actors against a green screen.
I agree in part with SD about the other people commenting on how much they hated this film. I get so, so very tired at people who constantly want their media presented to them in happy, easy-to-swallow sound bites and flashy images. WTWTA is probably one of the best movies I’ve seen this year, and it’s one of the most beautifully constructed and well-written works of art I’ve seen in a long, long time.
The movie was a brilliant microcosm for Max’s own ego and superego, and I thought that the dialogue and reasoning used in the film was spot on what a child would think, and say.
No wonder most adults and older children hated the movie. They’ve simply lost that beautiful innocent mindset we once cherished and lived by. Just like Max and the Wild Things.
I’m sure my 8 y/o loved it – as a matter of fact she did. But that still doesn’t erase the fact that it is a major snooze fest! I am disappointed and a bit puzzled at Amy’s comment …..people who constantly want their media presented to them in happy, easy-to-swallow sound bites and flashy images. ” I expect MY “media” to be presented to me in a way that appeals to me – not merely tricked by mis-represented trailers that hype up a film – the trailers looked like something that I’d enjoy seeing with the kids. It is my personal observation that Amy may be a very smart and intelligent 20-something, childless female who can’t readily appreciate the fact that when I take my children to a “Kid Movie”, I expect to enjoy that experience with them – not have them wake me up half way through. For Hollywood to sign off on such a project of taking 12 pages of art and turning it into a FEATURE film is ridiculous. It would’ve been easier to swallow if it were a short film – but, once again, and in MY OWN OPINION, Hollywood’s only interested in $$. I stand by my original statement; It was a piece of crap.