Movie Review: Where the Wild Things Are

Few screen adaptations of children's books have ever translated so well on screen as Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. Spike Jonze, the Oscar-nominated director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, brings Sendak's delightfully weird world to breathtaking and innovative life, enhancing the themes imperative to the book and expanding on the ideas that make the book so special. For those who are unfamiliar with the book (and I'd be surprised if you weren't), the story involves a young boy named Max, who is filled with all kinds of emotions and appears incapable of stabilizing and controlling them. The world around him is constantly changing with the dating habits of his mother and the maturation of his sister into a young woman. He learns new facts everyday that he finds both shocking and frightening to listen to because they threaten the balance of his daily routines. One night, he snaps at his mother for not paying enough attention to him and consequently, he runs away from home (without any supper of course). Strolling along a local river bank, he finds a boat and torridly sails to the land of the Wild Things. What he finds there are creatures that are similar to himself emotionally and this of course allows him to generate empathy for them. However, when they decide they want to eat him, he takes control and tells them that he traveled there to be their king. As a result, Max is made king of the Wild Things and is expected to make life easier for everyone there. Of course, he runs into trouble and finds that trying to make everyone happy is harder than it looks.

I said before that Jonze is successfully able to enhance the themes of Sendak's book by expanding on the ideas that are hinted at in the book. For instance, Jonze focuses on the idea that the land of the Wild Things is in fact a sad and lonely place. The Wild Things are indeed wild and uncontrollable creatures. They feed off their emotions, desiring to find happiness without ever really finding it. They work together with one another, wanting to love and wanting to believe that Max is indeed the answer to all their problems. One particular Wild Thing named Carol is a firm believer in this idea. He needs Max to be the answer to all his problems because he has no control over his emotions. He wants attention, he wants other people to love him, and yet he is unwilling to compromise to any of the other Wild Things. Carol wants things to be a certain way in his life and he reacts very harshly when he feels that others betray his dream. What I love about this movie is how incredibly well Jonze focuses on the parallels between Carol and Max. Carol is a representation of Max and how much both want things to happen their own way. In fact, Jonze plays with the idea that all of the Wild Things are a representation of the important people in Max's life. K.W., another Wild Thing who is trying to find answers about her own life, and who is seemingly the love interest of Carol in this movie, is meant to represent Max's mother in the land of the Wild Things. And Jonze develops the Freudian idea of how a young's boy first real love interest is in fact their mother. K.W. looks after Max, perhaps keenly aware that he is not really a king and quietly guiding Max throughout his time with the Wild Things. K.W.'s friends, Bob and Terry, represent the love interest of the mother in the film because Carol reacts so harshly when K.W. brings them back. So here you have all of these metaphoric characters just working themselves into Max's world. And slowly but surely, Max is able to realize the important things in his life and how things will not always happen the way he wants them to. And I think what both Max and the Wild Things learn at the end of the movie is to cherish the people who care about you in your life and to love them just as much as they love you. That is how Jonze is able to transcend beyond the words of Sendak's book. He is able to make a serious adult film out of a children's story, which I think is very remarkable.

Jonze utilizes the technical aspects of the story incredibly well. The shaky cinematography brings realism to the story and enhances the uncontrollable emotions that Max is trying to deal with in his life. He takes Max's thoughts and ideas very seriously and never dismisses them as childish, which is what I think makes this film so admirable. The vibrant and energetic musical score works on so many levels and is able to showcase the many different layers of both Max and the Wild Things. When Max is interacting with the Wild Things, the score becomes fast-paced and upbeat, illustrating how life just keeps rolling along without ever seeming to slow down. However, when Max is dealing with the emotions of the Wild Things and is actually forced to be a king, the score slows down and becomes melancholic in nature, illustrating how life can sometimes be frustrating and all the problems we have can seem too overwhelming. There is just so much working in this movie that all you can do is just sit back and appreciate it. It is a film that works because it is able to speak to all audiences and does not undermine the imagination of a child. The final shot between Max and his mother speaks volume to the entire point of the film, which is that we should care about the people who love us and never take them for granted.

Lenny's Grade: A-