Serious Movie Lover

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (2009/DVD) Based on Dave Eggers’ novelization of the original classic picture book by Maurice Sendak, directed by Spike Jonze, and with music by Carter Burwell and Karen Orzolek of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, this movie is hipster paradise and I was worried that it would annoy me. But instead it totally surprised me. It’s got a very unusual feel to it, in that it’s almost plotless. And I mean that in a good way. Amazingly, this 90-minute movie that introduces new characters and extrapolations ends up being an impressively accurate adaptation of the original minimally-worded children’s book. Basically, Max misbehaves, sails away to be King of the Wild Things, has a wild rumpus, and returns home. That the complexities and emotions acted out on screen feel like natural extensions of the short book we all read as kids says as much about Sendak’s mastery as it does about the screenplay written by Jonze and Eggers. (Sendak gets a producer credit for the movie, by the way, and has been very supportive of it.)

First, we’re given some context for Max’s misbehavior. We see that he’s smart, with a wildly active imagination and a talent for fort building. He’s lonely and restless. He loves his mom but wants more attention than she has time to give and doesn’t like that she’s dating. (Blink and you’ll miss Mark Ruffalo as The Boyfriend.) His dad isn’t around. He has a wolf suit. All of this is established subtly and authentically, making it easy to understand and identify with the characters and their actions. These people could live down the street from me. (Max’s older sister was particularly familiar to me, and her treatment of him rang painfully true. One of the screenwriters has to be a fellow guilt-ridden first born child. My money’s on Eggers.)

Wild rumpus in action.

Once Max arrives on the island where the Wild Things live, the movie meanders about and feels like a story a child is telling, jumping from one idea to the next and back again. It’s funny that the big, scary Wild Things have normal adult-sounding names, like Judith (voiced by Catherine O’Hara) and Ira (Forest Whitaker). As a group, they have problems that are often silly and sort of hard to understand. To me, Max’s time with them always felt like walking into the middle of a conversation and trying to understand what’s being discussed—which is exactly how most situations feel when you’re a kid, always working so hard to make sense out of a confusing jumble of language and emotions. The Wild Things are childish—selfish and impulsive, with no ability or desire to see things from others’ points of view. And they’re dangerous, hinting several times that they’ve eaten all of Max’s predecessors. These creatures represent to Max, at various times and all at once, all of the emotional battles he’s waging in his own reality: the confounding adult world, the heartache of losing his older sister’s attention as she turns her focus to friends, the exhilaration of adventure and running wild and free, the fear of his own anger and sadness, and the singular feeling of regret that comes after lashing out in angry confusion at someone who loves you. Trying to be King of the Wild Things and make everyone happy forces Max to face some truths about the way he feels about his family and his life, and especially about his tired, hard-working, loving mom, played by the infinitely awesome Catherine Keener.

Max Records, the young actor who plays Max, has to carry the bulk of the movie’s emotional weight, and he rises to the challenge beautifully. His is the only human face we see for a good two-thirds of the movie, and, while the Wild Things’ CGI faces do register some pretty life-like emotions, the impact and meaning of his interactions with them are reflected for the audience mainly by Max alone. Plus, he always looks like he needs a warm bath and good scrub, just like all 9-year-olds do.

Max Records and Spike Jonze

If it’s not clear by now, I totally understood young Max, with all of his angry acting out and wide-eyed wonder. Also, if it’s not already clear, this movie is sad. It was pretty sad when I was watching it, and then it got sadder in an ache-y way when I thought about it in the days that followed. Manohla accurately described it as “haunting.” It’s also visually beautiful in a really unique way. Jonze’s background as a music video director is evident, and his vision for this movie is strong and cohesive. He presents fantasy material in a starkly realistic style, making the Wild Things and their island as believable to the audience as they are to Max. It makes absolutely no sense that this wasn’t nominated for an Oscar in art direction. Jonze had to struggle with Warner Brothers to maintain the tone he wanted for the movie, which the studio reportedly thought was too dark and scary for children’s fare. But his end result is worth a million Shrek sequels or CGI destructions of Dr. Seuss’s legacy because it doesn’t condescend to its audience. It gives kids credit that they can handle watching something emotional and unusual, without a big happy bow around everything at the end. The lesson is that the world can be confusing and painful, but, if you’re lucky, there may be some supper waiting for you when you come home. And it will still be hot.

Grade after initial viewing: B+

Grade after mulling it over for a week: Um, that would be an A, you guys.