Movie Review: Where The Wild Things Are
I knew it was going to be difficult to take a book as short as “Where the Wild Things Are” and stretch it into a feature length film, but to my pleasant surprise, Spike Jonze was up to the challenge. There’s any number of places he could have taken this material, and he took it to a place that is, if I may say so, very childlike. The opening sequence, where we are introduced to Max, and the troubles that he faces (an older sibling who has increasingly less time for him, a divorced mother who has a new love interest) gave me such vivid flashbacks to my own childhood that I got goosebumps. Max’s fears, discomfort, inability to express what is most troubling him: Jonze nailed it. I was actually a little disappointed when Max runs away and the scene shifts, to where the titular Wild Things are, a fantasy land that Max reaches by boat, as in the book. We are then introduced to the Wild Things, the most expressive (and dangerous) of which is Carrol, the voice of James Gandolfini, who is his typical mouth-breathing self. Max talks them into not eating him and making him king, and that is the setup for most of the rest of the movie, which is, for the most part, beautifully rendered, both visually, and in terms of the events that transpire: a series of games, private conversations with the various monsters, and Max’s eventually being sent home, back to the real world.
What makes it all work so well is how accurately the feeling of childhood is captured both in the “real” world and the fantasy one. The monsters get along so well with Max, at first, because they are like him, childlike, and all that entails. They can be contrary, obstinate, difficult to please, standoffish, and, frankly, selfish, cruel, and unfair, all like real children. Children have yet to learn to think and act as adults, and for the vast majority of them, they are the center of their own worlds. That is caught so splendidly here that it should remind many adults of what childhood is really like, if any of them have forgotten, and believe me, I’m sure many of them have. As an adult, you are almost taught to forget what it is like to be a child. It is the only way you can get along in the world without resorting to despair.
In the end, this is a singular vision that is almost entirely realized. The emotional ups and downs that Max and the monsters go through is another part of what childhood is all about: everything that happens, moment by moment, is either a calamity or the occasion for the most complete and unadulterated joy, and the reason for it is because everything is brand new and being experienced for the first time. It therefore follows that whether Max actually went anywhere at all and the question of how long he was gone is rendered unnecessary to think about. We need only know that he went somewhere, whether physically or not, that it was necessary for him to go, for a time, to learn the lessons that will help him to cope with the “real” world to which he returns…in the same way that adults go to a therapist, or a day spa, or climb inside a bottle. All of us, of any age, have monsters to battle, and the coping skills we’ve learned throughout our lives will enable us to do that…or they won’t. I think part of this movie is that we are seeing an early attempt at coming to terms with difficult and painful concepts, through the wide eyes of an unusually sensitive child. Bottom line, this is a thought provoking movie, that both kids and adults should and will take something from, and it is worth seeing. My rating: 6/10.