Where The Wild Things Are is often criticized for being yet another adult movie masquerading as a kid flick, but there has never been another movie that so touchingly recreates what it means and feels like to be a nine year-old. The movie is certainly darker and more emotional than I would have originally anticipated, but it still retains the effortless childish wonder that the book captured. Like the book, Where the Wild Things Are is the story of Max (Max Records), a nine year-old boy who runs away to an imaginary world after a fight with his parents. Of course, there is more depth than that. Max is raised by his single mother (Catherine Keener), who spends more time with her boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) than Max would like. There's also his sister Claire (Pepita Emmerichs), who is indifferent towards the bullying Max suffers at the hands of her friends. Frustrated and seemingly alone, Max runs away both physically and mentally to a fantasy world filled with large, Jim-Henson-inspired Beasts- the Wild Things. Max becomes their king and quickly connects to Carol (James Gandolfini), a monster similar to himself, but as time goes on his power is questioned and Max begins to become homesick.
I'll admit, I have a nostalgia-based bias when it comes to this movie. It's not often that I cry during movies, but soon after my parents told me they were getting divorced and officially separated, I left the house, angry, to seek some kind of comfort at the movie theater down the street. I was forced to choose between seeing Zombieland (again) or taking a gamble on an adaptation of my favorite childhood book. I don't think I could have picked a more upsetting, yet appropriate movie. When it ended, I stayed in the back of the theater crying into my large popcorn until a worker kindly asked me to leave. I wasn't far from nine years old when I first saw the movie, and at the time I saw it as an accurate representation of the way I saw the world, but in a way that wasn't condescending or goofy like the other portrayals I had seen. Watching it five years later is still an emotional experience for me because it's the way I saw the world when I was Max's age. Before the the magic of the world went away, before I had to restrain or control my emotions, and before I had to make a conscious effort to have an imagination. Before my relationship with my mother fell apart, we had moments together that were directly reproduced with Catherine Keener and Max Records. It's not meant to be a movie for children, it's meant to be a reflection on childhood itself. In a 2009 interview with Vanity Fair, Spike Jonze said:
I'll admit, I have a nostalgia-based bias when it comes to this movie. It's not often that I cry during movies, but soon after my parents told me they were getting divorced and officially separated, I left the house, angry, to seek some kind of comfort at the movie theater down the street. I was forced to choose between seeing Zombieland (again) or taking a gamble on an adaptation of my favorite childhood book. I don't think I could have picked a more upsetting, yet appropriate movie. When it ended, I stayed in the back of the theater crying into my large popcorn until a worker kindly asked me to leave. I wasn't far from nine years old when I first saw the movie, and at the time I saw it as an accurate representation of the way I saw the world, but in a way that wasn't condescending or goofy like the other portrayals I had seen. Watching it five years later is still an emotional experience for me because it's the way I saw the world when I was Max's age. Before the the magic of the world went away, before I had to restrain or control my emotions, and before I had to make a conscious effort to have an imagination. Before my relationship with my mother fell apart, we had moments together that were directly reproduced with Catherine Keener and Max Records. It's not meant to be a movie for children, it's meant to be a reflection on childhood itself. In a 2009 interview with Vanity Fair, Spike Jonze said:
"When I started working on it, I wasn’t thinking about children’s films. I wasn’t thinking that, Oh, this is my children’s film. I was thinking about the character, and about making a movie that felt like childhood. I was never referencing children’s films or reacting to children’s films. I was just trying to make a movie that felt like being that age and trying to understand the world and figure it out, how confusing it is; how scary it can be; what scary, unpredictable emotions it brings out; and things being out of control. Just like specific primal fear and feelings that I associate with being that age."
By no means is Where the Wild Things Are a perfect movie. Even as a movie for adults, it sometimes takes itself a little too seriously. Unlike Jonze's latest masterpiece Her, which I would argue has the perfect balance of comedy and drama, Wild Things is continuously melancholy and occasionally melodramatic. Moments to inspire laughter are rare, and most come from the intimate relatability of it all, when the audience is encourage to think 'I remember doing that as a kid'. And if this film was intended for adults, rather than kids, the dialogue should have been a little more refined. The Wild Things are beasts, sure, but what they say is too often repetitive and oversimplified. The perfect version of this movie (which I'm not sure I would want anyway) would have either enough comedy to balance out the sadness and appeal to a wider audience, or more sophisticated characters to elevate this movie into definite adult territory.
But even if Where the Wild Things Are is a big mess of misplaced anger and nightmarish creatures, I love it all the same. I truly believe that Spike Jonze is one of the great modern directors, and his work with cinematographer Lance Acord only ever amounts to something beautiful. If you find flaws in the story, ignore that for a moment and just admire the beauty of the film. Most of the movie was filmed using a handheld camera, but that doesn't create Blair Witch dizziness, it's a little wild and raw, which is perfect. From the way sunlight is used to the stunning landscapes, it's clear that every shot has been handled with great care. |
The beauty is only amplified by Carter Burtwell and Karen O. (who was recently nominated for an Academy Award for 'The Moon Song' from Jonze's Her)'s score, something that lingers after the movie has finished. Truly, madly, deeply, I love this movie. In all its imperfections, in all its glory, I wouldn't have it any other way.