Movie Review: Where the Wild Things Are

Spike Jonze has been MIA for seven years on the movie scene. However, he has come back with a vengeance and delivered one of the most brilliant family films about being a young boy on the cusp of finally having to grow up. After author Maurice Sendak saw Jonze’s breakout film Being John Malkovich, he knew who he wanted to adapt his famous children’s book. Since then, audiences have had no idea what to expect from a live-action version of Where the Wild Things Are.

The film, written by Jonze himself along with author Dave Eggers, who also has written his own adaptation of the original novel, have taken a nine-sentence story and expanded it into a 107-minute opus to the child inside every boy growing in the years since the book’s original publication in 1963. After having just watched Eggers'  Away We Go only a few days prior to the screening of Where the Wild Things Are, I knew that, along with Jonze's direction, there would be more than enough character and emotion to sustain a feature-length running time

Catherine Keener has now had a role in all three of Jonze’s films. From her hilarious turns in Being John Malkovich and Adaptation (where she coincidentally played herself), she obviously has a great friendship with the director. Jonze directed Keener to an Oscar nomination for her role in Being John Malkovich. This time she takes a backseat to the star of Where the Wild Things Are, Max Records who plays the lead as Max.

By now, many people are familiar with the tale of Max and his adventures with the Wild Things, whether they have read the book or not. With the three most realistic opening scenes of being a young boy ever, we can see that Jonze is up to task in bringing everything necessary to the table while still maintaining this as his film. Who hasn’t run around the house as a child screaming and chasing their dog, terrorizing it with as much fake ferocity as one can muster? It’s the most natural thing for a child to do with a pet. As a grown up I still do it.

The second scene shows Max tunneling out an igloo across the street from his house and gathering snowballs for a showdown with his sister Claire (Pepita Emmerichs) and her friends. After starting the snowball fight, he runs across to his igloo for shelter. He is being followed by Claire’s friends, who proceed to jump onto the igloo and bring it tumbling down on top of him. Of course Max is upset and can’t help but cry, as he’s infuriated that things have gone too far. Why is Max really crying? Anyone who’s been in this situation as a child can tell you that Max is really upset with himself for having the world’s greatest idea crushed by his own selfishness in the situation.

Article Author: Cinenerd

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