Movie Review: Where the Wild Things Are

From Maurice Sendak's ten sentence classic children's book, "Where the Wild Things Are", Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers create a magical looking 95 minute, feature film. The movie almost captures the essence of the tale (it's a little tame) about a nine year old boy named Max who has more raw emotion then he can possibly handle. From the opening credits (which are scribbled on with a crayon), we see a boy who is understandably, out of control and has mastered the art of the tantrum. He is dealing with his parents divorce, his older sisters' indifference, mommys' preoccupation with work and her new boyfriend and his science teachers' doomsday vision of the future. Max is brilliantly portrayed by Max Records, a 12 year old who nails this role in a way I can't imagine another child doing. Max Records IS Max, angry and anguished, impossible, confused and very vulnerable. After a day of being pushed to his emotional limit, he runs away, finds a little sailboat and makes his way to an island inhabited by giant, childlike monsters (created in Jim Henson's Creature Shop). In true fairytale fashion, Max learns his life lesson from living with his newly inherited family where he is the self proclaimed King. The question that begs to be asked is, "Who is the intended audience for this movie"? Parents, who should see it, will not go without their kids. It is too scary for very young children and not scary enough for older children. Jonze and Eggers said they "wanted to make a movie about childhood, not a children's movie". They succeeded. It should probably be required viewing for therapists. The movie gives you a birds-eye view of just how lonely, painful and scary a child's life can be. It also provides evidence (because the home life scenario is so real), that sometimes a tantrum is the appropriate response. And for a culture that loves to medicate all behavior that is difficult to manage, it is enlightening, to say the least. The movie features the always perfect Catherine Keener as the very harried and distracted mother and Mark Ruffalo as her boyfriend. James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker, Chris Cooper, Catherine O'Hara and a few other notables, provide the beasts with their voices and perfect blend of sensitivity and frightening rage. A little bit of trivia: When Sendak misbehaved as a child, his parents would call him "vilde chaya", which means "wild beast" in Yiddish.
Fifteen minutes shaved off of this movie would have made it more watchable. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend waiting for it to come out On Demand or DVD because it will loose a lot of it's visual impact (the cinematography is unique). The bottom line, I think most people will walk away from this movie a little disappointed. What can I say.