Review: Where The Wild Things Are

Last night, the lights dimmed, and the previews ended. We sat in the third row of the theater, staring straight up at the large screen. Each pixel was perfectly clear. Similar to the The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) DVD, the title slates of the production companies were drawn over with white drawings (presumably made by Max, since his name appeared on all of them). Then without warning, the most shaky, action packed, eye-pounding action I've ever seen so close up at the start of a movie, blasted into my brain: Max making mischief. Just like the book! I thought to myself. Thankfully, this is not the last time I'll find myself thinking this during the night.
Where The Wild Things Are is a 90 minute feature directed by Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovitch (1999), and Adaptation (2002)) based on Maurice Sendak's 38 page children's book. The book is incredibly simple: Max is bad and sent to his room without dinner. A forest grows in his room, and Max finds a boat which he sails to the land of the Wild Things. They make him king, and the Wild Rompus Begins! Max eventually misses his home, and, smelling his dinner, sails back to his room where hot dinner is waiting for him. Not much of a movie, if you ask me. But, as Spike Jonze could only do, the book has been translated into a live-action film, dinner, boat, monsters and all.
A major plus for the film is Spike Jonze's impressive ability to make fake things feel real, no matter how fake they look. The monsters were actual people inside giant costumes, just the faces being computer animated. Max's escape to the Land of the Wild Things, is an impressive two-minute sequence of beautifully filmed sailing, that truly captures the imagination and presents the audience with a spectacle of a great sailor found in a tiny boy. The monster's huts, and their fortress are all wonderfully crafted and even more wonderfully destroyed. There is no doubt that this film is a true work of art: beautiful both in what's real, and what is not.
While the book deals mainly with the idea "There's no place like home," the film strays into the deeper realm of relationships and violence, leadership and fairness. Fairness is generally a theme found in children's movies, but relationships, violence, and leadership are not. Max's mother is divorced, raising two children, and attempting to maintain her job. She also has a new boyfriend, of whom Max is not fond (the attention toward Max has diminished). This divorce and boyfriend situation is nowhere to be found in the book, but adds a unique and acceptable twist to the simple plot. Carol, Max's favorite Wild Thing, has some relationship issues with KW (he's in love with her, but she generally wants to be somewhere else), and becomes rather upset when Max and KW hang out. To make things right, Max issues that they play war. Two teams of Wild Things (and Max) throw dirt clods at each other, attempting to "kill" the bad guys. When one player (Alexander) gets hurt, things start to go wrong. (Carol even rips off another Wild Things arm!) Max's bad leadership turns the Wild Things against him, and ultimately Max misses his mom and decides to go home. The imaginary part of the film ends abruptly, and Max quickly returns home for a cute dinner with his mom.
The film is funny, action packed, and short, but possibly is a bit too sad and scary for young children. It may, in fact, have more for adults than for children. Overall, though, Jonze's beautiful ability to capture the imaginary world are once again displayed in his wonderful adaptation of Maurice Sendak's book Where The Wild Things Are.