Where the Wild Things Are

Rating

Director

Spike Jonze

Screenplay

Spike Jonze, David Eggars (Book: Maurice Sendak)

Length

101 min.

Starring

Max Records, Pepita Emmerichs, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo, James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker, Michael Berry Jr., Chris Cooper, Lauren Ambrose

MPAA Rating

PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language.

Review

How does an extremely short children’s book get transformed into a full-length motion picture? Expand it. Spike Jonze, acclaimed director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, takes on Maurice Sendak’s seminal 1963 picture book with mixed, but rewarding results.

The original story is about a young boy named Max whose wild “mischief” lands him in trouble and gets him sent to bed without supper. There an amazing wild world emerges as he flushes out his anger and returns in time to find a hot supper waiting. Jonze has a different take on the tale, altering the theme to fit a feature-length format.

Max (Max Records) is a young boy whose father has died and whose mother (Catherine Keener) works hard to keep things going alone. Filled with anger he doesn’t understand, Max goes from tearing up his sister’s room after one of her friends crashes through his self-made igloo to screaming and carrying on in the kitchen before dinner, which Mom’s new boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) is attending.

After he runs furiously from the house to get lost in the woods where he can cool down, he sets sail on a vast ocean in his own imagination to a fantasy world of monsters. Dressed in a wolf costume, he claims to be a great king and that he’s there to rule over them instead of being their meal.

The monsters seem to take on various personalities in his mind from the easily-angered Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini) to the belittled and mistreated goat-like Alexander (Paul Dano); from the soft-spoken pushover Ira (Forest Whitaker) to Ira’s aggressive, depressive girlfriend Judith (Catherine O’Hara); and then there’s the loner K.W. (Lauren Ambrose) who comes and goes with regularity, frustrating Carol as he tries to keep the group together.

As these Wild Things explore their personal frustrations, expectations and disappointments, Max slowly understands who he is and, perhaps, why he’s angry. Whether he truly comprehends this, or if he merely recognizes the Wild Things as individuals not as part of himself, is never fully explored and left the audience to decide. And while I would like to believe he resolves his abandonment issues, the fact that he’s a child and the resolution is entirely handled in the subconscious of his mind, does not lend itself well to a satisfactory conclusion.

Still, the effort is noble and were it expanded further at the end, perhaps for him to verbalize his recognition of self, perhaps the film could have been more successful.

Spike Jonze does manage to create a living, breathing world of animatronic/cgi monsters whose emotive expressions are far better than many other such characters in other films the field. Matter of fact, the fantasy world of Max’s imagination is what truly carries the film. It’s creative, emotional and resonant. That the surrounding feature isn’t as good is a detriment to the entire production even if the decisions made are understandable.

Records is a talented kid, creating an honest portrait of a volatile child. That he could keep his performance up while interacting with animatronic suits suggests he has capabilities that could carry him into more adult fare.

Gandolfini, Ambrose and O’Hara are the standouts in the vocal cast, each creating an interesting character with dimensionality that even many animated features can’t obtain. Part of that is thanks to the visual effects wizardry employed in the film, but the voice performances help tremendously.

Where the Wild Things Are is not a film you can plop a child down in front of without exploring the film’s themes in conversation. Parents owe it to themselves and their children to sit down after and discuss what the film means. This is even more vital for recently divorced parents or parents who’ve been widowed. The lessons a film like Wild Things can teach are immeasurable even in the face of imperfections.

Review Written

December 2, 2009