Where the Wild Things Are

[V4junkie]

Just saw this last weekend. To avoid spoilers (as if I could when the source material contained 9 sentences), I'll keep it short. This isn't a kids film, it's a film about kids. Very unconventional and minimalistic. I thought the kid playing Max was excellent. Didn't act like an adult or deliver lines that no kid would ever think of, as most young protagonists do. Wild but vulnerable, the performance had a lot of depth. I'm a bit partial, I loved the book as a kid.

Anyone else seen it? I'm really surprised they were able to convince WB to foot the $80mil bill for a movie that is so unconventional. It was very . . . Indie.

Edited October 19, 2009 by V4junkie

[Turbo810]

I heard the same thing. Good movie and not for kids.

[Gump]

i think it was always on PBS when i was a kid?

[V4junkie]

Well kids might enjoy it, but I don't think they'll really understand what's going on

[Fonzie]

Funny..... Baby Fonz & I were gonna go see it this past weekend since he did so well at Toy Story 3D, but after reading a couple of reviews that kinda said the same thing as you, plus the weekend bein' busy with the wife bringin' home surprise bunkbeds I wasn't planning on havin' to put together .... We never got around to it, which sucks 'cause he was really excited about it & kept havin' me read it to him last week

Ever notice how your projects are yours alone..... And her projects ultimately end up as your projects as well

P.S.... He's lookin' over my shoulder at the picture while I read this thread & won't let me scroll down

Edited October 20, 2009 by Fonzie

[Artmageddon]

Ever notice how your projects are yours alone..... And her projects ultimately end up as your projects as well

So very, very true.

[rick37]

how close is the movie to the book

[e-flores]

Nice, I kinda wanted to see the movie considering I grew up with the book and all. I hadn't heard any reviews yet, and I was a bit leery about it being a movie for the 5-7 yr old crowd considering the book and all. Now it looks like a movie I wouldn't mind paying for at all.

[Fonzie]

This particular review kind of depressed me, and made me a bit hesitant. Now, however, I'm thinkin' "Screw it" & think I'm gonna take him anyways. He'll probably just enjoy watchin' the monsters

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009910160328

Movie review: Where the Wild Things Are **1/2

Grim new interpretation of Maurice Sendak's classic book might not be for kids

( WARNER BROS. )

Zoom | Photo Reprints

By KIRK BAIRD

BLADE STAFF WRITER

To a child, the world can be a frightening, lonely place. Where the Wild Things Are is a manifestation of those fears, a perplexing Freudian ego analysis masquerading as a children's film that will baffle youngsters and leave many adults just as puzzled. A Spike Jonze adaptation of Maurice Sendak's revered children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, the film is a dark Brothers Grimm tale without the Walt Disney-style sanitizing for a mass audience. It's wholly original and yet mostly inaccessible. Still, it's remarkable that such a film even exists given the limited scope of the source material, itself less than 50 pages. Jonze, who directed and co-wrote the film, was forced to take liberties with Sendak's book about a misbehaving boy, Max, who wishes himself into a fantasy world of unruly monsters where he is proclaimed king. The film provides considerable more back- story to Max and his situation. Max (Max Records in a standout performance) is a son of divorced parents who suffers from issues of abandonment by his father, who is never seen; his older sister (Pepita Emmerichs), who has moved on to be with friends her age, and his mother (Catherine Keener), who is busy juggling a rocky career and a personal life.

Where the Wild Things Are Directed by Spike Jonze. Written by Jonze and Dave Eggers, based on the book by Maurice Sendak. A Warner Bros. Pictures release, opening today at Cinemas De Lux Franklin Park and Maumee, the Sundance Kid Drive-in, and Showcases Levis Commons and Fallen Timbers. Rated PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure action, and brief language. Running time: 101 minutes.

Critic's rating: 2½ stars

Max Max Records

Mom Catherine Keener

The Boyfriend Mark Ruffalo

ooooo Outstanding; oooo Very Good; ooo Good; oo Fair; o Poor.

Jonze tries valiantly to paint a respectable portrait of the sister and mother. They aren't bad people, just caught up in their lives like most everyone else. It's Max, then, who has the issues. His outbursts of rage and tears suggest the need for therapy.

After a brief battle with his mother during which he bites her on the shoulder, Max runs away into the night. After stumbling into a forest, he discovers a small sailboat and sets off into the moonlight sea. A night and day's journey leads him to an island where he discovers a small band of large monsters that are remarkably faithful to the book's illustrations and impressively realized on-screen.

In the film's not-so-subtle Freudian subtext, the monsters serve as surrogates of Max and his jumbled emotions. Alexander (voice of Paul Dano) is ignored. Judith (voice of Catherine O'Hara) is pessimistic. Ira (voice of Forest Whitaker) is loving. The Bull (voice of Michael Berry, Jr.) is shy. Douglas (Chris Cooper) is sensible. And Carol (voice of James Gandolfini), who looks like a cross between a Henson creation and H.R. Pufnstuf, is angry. In particular, Carol is mad at KW (voice of Lauren Ambrose), a monster who has left the clan to be with new friends, leaving Carol feeling abandoned and enraged. When Max discovers the monsters, Carol is destroying their homes.

The creatures are at first anything but friendly to Max. They threaten to eat him, but Carol steps in to protect him. After Max spins a wild yarn about being a king with magical powers that can destroy and protect, the monsters proclaim him their leader and a familial bond develops between them, especially with Carol. But when Max's secret of a life less extraordinary - that of a boy, and not of a powerful king - is revealed to the fractious monsters, his relationship with them changes, most notably with Carol. Max also grows fond of KW, a friendly, protective monster who has matured beyond the single emotions of the others. But with so much gravitas placed on their relationship, the movie's conclusion is made all the more frustrating.

Max's island journey is much about his sister, yet there's never a real-world reconciliation. A Spielbergian moment of family hugs and rainbows in the sky isn't needed, but it would have been nice to see Max and his sister make amends instead of implied emotional growth on Max's part. Jonze digs deep in his analysis of childhood traumas and the resulting inner pain. But the film's message is rather hollow: There's a time to put away such emotional baggage and grow up. Such a simple conclusion discounts Max's feelings as being no longer valid by virtue of age. But just because Max's sister has chosen to embrace puberty doesn't mean Max should have to follow suit, nor does it mean his feelings of abandonment aren't justified.

Such criticism usually doesn't involve a children's film, but Where the Wild Things Are isn't your typical children's tale. Its density and thoughtfulness assure a place high above most kiddie fare. It's well-acted and visually sumptuous, with some tremendous set design by Simon McCutcheon and costume work by Casey Storm. But like its hipster indie soundtrack, Where the Wild Things Are fails to offer much to children.

Like a kiss on the cheek from a pretty girl, Where the Wild Things Are is an enticing but ultimately empty gesture that leaves you wanting more.

Contact Kirk Baird at

kbaird@theblade.com

or 419-724-6734.

[V4junkie]

^^^Oh that's way too harsh

http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=18530&reviewer=416

by Rob Gonsalves

"Fear and loathing in fantasyland."

This is how we’re introduced to Max (Max Records), the little-boy hero of "Where the Wild Things Are": he’s rampaging through his house, “hunting” the family dog — growling at it, finally tackling it.

Max’s “hunt” reminded me of when my pomeranian does much the same thing to my cats. She isn’t trying to kill or even hurt the cats — it’s just play. So, too, with Max, who feels wildness in his soul, inchoate feelings of abandonment and rage he can only deal with by devolving. His mom is divorced and busy, his dad is never around, his older sister is growing away from him. There’s nothing much Max can do but growl and howl.

Hunter S. Thompson prefaced Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with Samuel Johnson’s line “He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.” Johnson’s line could as well have led into Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book, which has entranced kids and scandalized certain adults for generations. Spike Jonze’s film version may reverse the equation: adults may get more out of it than kids will, and indeed Jonze has spoken of it as more a film about childhood than a film for children. In the book, Max is sent to bed without supper, and imagines that his bedroom turns into a vast shaggy forest inhabited by “wild things” — massive creatures who at first want to eat him, until he convinces them to worship him as a king. In the movie, Max sees his mother (Catherine Keener) on the couch with her boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) and loses it — he “acts out,” biting his mom on the shoulder and taking off into the night, eventually finding a boat and floating off to the island of the wild things.

Where the Wild Things Are was shot (beautifully, by cinematographer Lance Acord) in various parts of Australia, and the locale makes about as much sense as a boy’s fecund, capricious fantasy of the perfect place — it has a forest, a desert, and a sea. The forest is usually dark, though when Max and the wild things run out to the cliffs, it’s perfect orange dusk. This is an anomaly, an idiosyncratic art film with a big budget, psychologically dense yet emotionally transparent. Max’s pain is reflected by the wild things, a morose and grumbling pack, including the big destroyer Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini), who may stand in for Max’s Id.

Essentially, the movie is about Max’s journey from childish solipsism (“Woman, feed me!” he bellows at his mom on her date night) to an awareness of situations and feelings outside himself. Max’s new responsibilities as the “king” of the wild things — he has promised to banish sadness from their land — bring him to a greater understanding of what his mom deals with. The bickering couple Ira (Forest Whitaker) and Judith (Catherine O’Hara) may represent Max’s divorced parents, while the distant but warm KW (Lauren Ambrose) may be both a big-sister and mother figure. The narrative is free-form enough to be interpreted any number of ways, none of which will be right or wrong.

This is a strange (and moving) heffalump indeed, a future cult classic if ever there was one, and to believe in it you have to believe in the unfocused anger of a nine-year-old who doesn’t understand much of anything until others look to him for guidance. He learns, as it were, on the job, and he is imperfect. The movie, on the other hand, strikes me as perfect on every level. Some will find it amorphous and even boring — it’s not the usual CGI razzle-dazzle we’ve been led to expect from movies based on children’s literature, with the latest hot comedian playing to the rafters through pounds of latex. At its best, it communicates the pain of being a boy who gets rid of that pain by making a beast out of himself, before learning to put childish — and wild — things behind him.

[Fonzie]

Yeah..... I like yours better

[wnaplay]

For some reason I dont even think this movie looks good. I have not heard anyone say they enjoyed it.