My Review: Where The Wild Things Are (4/10)

¨It's going to be a place where only the things you want to happen, would happen. ¨

The only thing I wanted to happen while watching the highly appraised Where the Wild Things Are was for the movie to get over with. I found this film very boring and couldn`t identify with the characters. I understood the melancholic point the director was trying to get across, but I guess my childhood was nothing like that. I remember enjoying my childhood a lot and never feeling so philosophical and sad towards life like the main character felt. The first twenty minutes of the film you just feel so sorry for Max because he feels so ignored and misunderstood. I think this movie is a little too dark for kids to enjoy and a bit too imaginative for grownups to endure. Perhaps it is just me, but I found it very difficult to identify with Max. This film was directed by Spike Jonze, who is famous for directing several videos for musical bands, directing Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, and working as a writer for the Jackass series. This time he adapted Maurice Sendak`s classic children`s story. I haven`t read the story so I can`t say if it is faithful to the original material, but after watching this movie I am not even remotely interested in reading the story. The movie has a very sad and pessimistic feel to it, but at the same time it does feel artistic as well. The main problem I had with it is that I wasn`t being entertained and felt the movie was taking forever.

Where the Wild Things Are is a movie about a kid named Max who feels misunderstood and lonely. He doesn`t have many friends and spends most part of the day playing with his wolf suit and his dog. Max is played very well by the young Max Records (from The Brothers Bloom); he is very mature on screen and gives the best performance in this movie. His sister is a little older than him and she is going through the stage of dating boys and doesn`t pay too much attention to him. His mom (played by Catherine Keener from 40 Year Old Virgin fame) is a single mother who has to make time for work and the children. One night Max gets upset while his mother is downstairs with her boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo from Zodiac) and he throws a tantrum because he doesn`t get what he wants and ends up bighting her. After this Max runs away from home and ends up imaginatively crossing an ocean and reaching an island full of strange creatures. Here he finds a group of them who are arguing with one because he is throwing a fit and destroying their homes because someone has left the group. Max decides to assist Carol, the creature who is destroying everything, because he identifies with him (Carol and Max are very similar in nature). The creatures at first want to eat Max, but he tells them he is a king and that he has special powers so the creatures decide to crown him king of the island as long as he takes away the sadness. He says he has a sadness shield that will keep sadness away from everyone so they all accept him. All the creatures have different emotions, one feels like no one ever listens to him, another is always upset and wants to eat people, and Carol who is the most similar to Max always has to get what he wants. In this new world, Max feels accepted and listened to, but he will soon find out that it isn`t easy to be king and will learn an important lesson in the process. The creatures are voiced by James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O`Hara, Forest Whitaker, Chris Cooper, Michael Berry Jr., and Lauren Ambrose.

I think this movie is too dark for kids to enjoy. Max Records does a great job of expressing these wide ranges of emotions a ten year old kid goes through, but the material is a bit too complicated for children. At least I couldn`t identify with what Max was going through as I remember my childhood more enjoyable and less philosophical. I think that Up is a movie that expresses these issues in a better light and that kids and grownups will enjoy much more. This film is very artistic, but you really feel sad for the kid right from the opening scene and the movie just feels too nostalgic and doesn`t seem to focus enough in the good moments we all have had in our childhood. When the movie began I was hoping it would get to the moment we were introduced to the creatures because I felt it was dragging too much, but then when we get to the creatures I was just waiting for the movie to end because I was bored and felt it was taking forever. I wouldn`t recommend this movie, although most people I have talked to have enjoyed it so you might want to check it out because it could have a different effect on you than it did on me.