Where The Wild Things Are

Theatrical Release: October 2009

Genre: Children's Book Adaptation

Sub-Genre: Not for children...

Starring: Max Records, a 9-year-old unknown who's already a better actor than Nicolas Cage will ever be; Catherine Keener, who you might remember "deflowered" Steve Carell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin; Wild things (and not the Denise Richards/Neve Campbell kind... Sorry.); A cast of very talented voice actors...

Expectations Going In: Here's a confession: I have no recollection of ever reading this book. I'm certain it was either read to me or I glossed over the pages at some point in my life but this book holds no special place in my heart. But I'm a big fan of Spike Jonze's work so I had to see this movie despite being indifferent to the story. Not familiar with Spike Jonze? He brought you this; and this; all of this; don't forget this; and finally this. He kinda kicks ass. So my expectations, since learning that he was behind this story I was only slightly aware of, were very high.

Overview: In case you were genetically engineered, weened on a slurry of high-protein, low-fat egg white drinks, and raised far away from American civilization, you know that this movie is based on a popular children's book of the same name, written in 1963 by Maurice Sendak. It's cool if you never read it but it's not cool if you never knew about it. It's like not knowing about baseball cards or Bazooka Joe or Sarah Palin's illiteracy. Easy jab, I know, but do you really think she reads anything more topical and informative than Cosmo? Back to the flick...

You wouldn't think a movie based on one of your favorite childhood books would suck to bring kids to. Don't get me wrong, it's not an inappropriate movie to bring your little booger-eater to, he/she/it will probably just not get it. The monsters look fun and furry and they have big smiles and they play with kids so Brayden/Kaylen/Taben/Mason/whatever-your-kids-name-is should get their friends and go see it, right? Take my advice, bring the birthday party to see Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs instead.

Most people I know who've seen the movie, didn't like it, including my wife. That's fair. No one enjoys watching kids trash their sister's room because her teenage friends destroyed his snow fort or ruining their single Mom's chance at getting a little sumpin-sumpin because they want attention. On the surface, these actions immediately fall into the "shitty little kid behavior" category. When Max goes off the deep end and dons his old, dirty wolf costume and yells for his Mom to "Feed me, woman!", no one in the theater is really sympathizing with him and no one was really laughing quite as hard as I was. Max is obviously a bright kid with a healthy imagination but he seems to have no friends. His teenage sister, who up until very recently was probably very close to him, has more important adolescent issues to concern herself with like texting and jellybeans and stickers and whatever the hell you kids are into nowadays. Max's father (who's most likely a wolf, based on Max's wardrobe tendencies) isn't in the picture either, thanks to a recent appearance on Maury, and the one guy who's trying to stick it to his Mom could really give a shit about Max. But when Max runs away and escapes into his imagination, you get a much better idea of what's going on in his mind. Max is at that awful age where you're coming into puberty and everything is awkward, more so without a stable male role model around. His Mom is constantly preoccupied with either work or maintaining even a modest personal life, his relationship with his sister is nothing like what it used to be, and he has no friends to play with. It's never mentioned in the movie outright but I also got the feeling that Max may have recently moved to this new house and neighborhood after a divorce. No Mom, no Dad, no sister, no friends... Max is just a lonely little boy at the worst age to be lonely. After a final violent outburst, Max leaves his house faster than Guy Ritchie left Madonna. Max, being caught on the cusp between being a boy and turning into a young man, deals with it the only way he knows how: By retreating into his imagination. To the island where his playful and possibly dangerous monsters live.

No 10- or 12-year-old is equipped to cope with such heavy emotional issues. As an armchair psychologist, these are my observations on the monsters that live in Max's imagination and what they represent in his daily life.

Carol (James Gandolfini): The inner Max. The one behind the wheel. If Max could say exactly what was on his mind at any given time, it would be Carol speaking. Carol is regularly second-guessed and over-ridden by the other monsters on the island. He also has some simmering anger issues.

PS: James Gandolfini is a better voice-actor than most live actors...

Alexander (Paul Dano): The insecure Max. The abandoned Max. Alexander is most likely the direct result of the divorce. He's the part that feels like no one notices him and he'll always get forgotten or left behind when the fun stuff starts. Alexander is who you see in the classroom when Max is playing with a toy at his desk instead of paying attention to what's going on around him.

Judith (Catherine O'Hara): Max's relationship with his sister. Judith is always very distant with Max and threatens to eat him more than once. She ridicules him constantly but occasionally goes out of her way to have fun with him. She likes to remind Max that while she knows that the other monsters like him, she's gonna stay at arm's length from him.

Ira (Forest Whitaker): The relationship Max wants to have with his sister. Or his family... Do I look like Sigmund Freud to you? Ira and Judith love each other immensely and always have each others' back.

Douglas (Chris Cooper): Max's super-ego. The part of his psyche that strives to do the right thing, all the time. Douglas and Carol go hand-in-hand and at one point Carol declares that if he were stuck on a desert island and could only bring one thing with him, it'd be Douglas. You get a glimpse of Douglas when Max shows his Mom what he's done to his sister's room. And the scene where Carol rips Douglas's arm off, to me, represents Max shutting down his conscience temporarily in an angry outburst which he's prone to doing. Douglas is voice-acted by Chris Cooper who played a toothless guy banging Meryl Streep in a movie about writer's block called Adaptation (also a Spike Jonze flick). Which sucked. And yes, you read that correctly, Carol rips Douglas's arm off. Clean. Off. So... Fun for the whole family! (?)

The Bull (Some no-name actor with only one line anyway): The adult that Max will surely grow into some day. He just kinda hangs around on the periphery of most scenes and doesn't say anything. He's large and foreboding but keeps to himself. He has one line at the end: "Max... When you go back, will you say nice things about us?" I read another review somewhere else that said The Bull represented 'depression' by being so close to Max's other working parts at all times. I only disagree because of this last spoken line. I think Grown-Up Max is worried about forgetting these imaginary friends and how important they've been to him in working through such hard times...

KW (Lauren Ambrose...Who?): Max's relationship with his mother. KW has disappeared for a while because she made some new friends somewhere else on the island. Friends max can't understand but it seems KW is crazy about them. She only checks in occasionally and hardly talks to Carol at all anymore, even though the two of them used to be inseparable. When you see the movie, you'll be amazed at how perfect an allegory KW is for Max's relationship with his mom. I can't tell if this is the work of Maurice Sendak or Spike Jonze or David Eggers but it's absolutely brilliant.

It's OK if you didn't like this movie, I don't expect everyone to relate to Max. But that's where I think the disconnect is. If you've never been a little boy whose parents were divorced or who changed schools (again!) or who needed some attention from their Mom/Dad/sister who used to be your best friend or any of the hardships Max is going through, then you probably can't sympathize. I'm sure you had your own issues as a kid but not everyone has found themselves at Max's emotional crossroads. Just a lonely little boy trying to deal with grown-up feelings on his own. So what you see on the screen isn't your typical story with a problem that needs to be resolved and a subplot and a predictable slapstick character for comic relief. What you see is the inside of a little boy's head while he deals with some major stuff... The child in him just wants to play with monsters, build a kickass fort, and be king but the slowly evolving adult in him is trying to cope with overwhelming emotions using his "imagineered" monsters. All Max's monsters want is to live happily with one another and sleep together in a real pile, like they used to. And eventually, after some quality play time, Max knows he has to leave his Island Of Wild Things and go back to his problems, which are much too big for such a little boy. That's why I figure a lot of people didn't like the movie. They took their kids to it, expecting silly monsters to swing from trees and play with Max and maybe David Bowie would show up and sing a song about Dancing Babies while wearing a codpiece and eyeliner. Or they weren't expecting the ever-present feeling that something truly evil was impending. One reviewer, who I don't care to cite here since I'm paraphrasing anyway, said this movie was more about being a kid than it was a kid's movie. Play that phrase over and over in your brain as you watch this film.

Poor Max...

So what will YOU think of this movie? I don't know. Your kids, I'm sure, will be bored at this movie. If you wanna take your offspring to a matinee this weekend, why not go see another crappy Disney movie starring Dwayne "I'm Not The Rock Anymore, I'm A Real Actor For Realsies" Johnson? They'll be studying Where The Wild Things Are in their college Psychology classes anyway.

Overall: 10 out of 10. Film appreciation schools and psychology majors will be taking this movie apart for years.

Best Scene: The one with your mom in it.

No, I really can't pick one scene out. The whole of this movie is greater than the sum of it's parts, to borrow more psycho-babble.

What my wife said: I leaned over to her 15 minutes into the movie...

Me: You hate this movie, don't you?

Her: Yep.

Me: I figured.

Her: Well who wants to see a movie about a shitty kid?

Who would enjoy this movie: My dad. Your inner child. James Lipton.

Watch it if you like: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Rushmore. Building snow forts.

Next in the Q: Who knows? I'm using my Netflix account to watch Strangers With Candy at work on my lunch breaks (you've gotta watch the preview). I'm sure I'll watch a great movie with my sister at Thanksgiving. Maybe in honor of going back to Brainerd, I should review the only movie about the Great North Woods town worth watching: Fargo.

You betcha.