Review: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is a classic amongst children’s books, not so much due to mere entertainment value, though it has that, but because of how much it means to children whose parents have read it to them.  Children empathize with Max, a boy whose mother sends him to his room after he acts out his more aggressive side, a boy who finds solace in a mystical world he creates where monsters roam and wild rumpuses abound.  To say Sendak’s story is magical to children is putting it lightly, and saying Spike Jonze’s feature film adaptation is commendable in regards to Sendak’s story is as much of an understatement as you can muster.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE is a master work.  It tells its intricate and nuanced story with grace and care that only a parent can give a child, and its characters come to life in startlingly exquisite detail.  More than just a coming of age story, the narrative Jonze has expanded from the original book takes the themes Sendak created and flashes them in an immense presence.  He does all this without ever allowing the film to feel forced or less than genuine.  Such a feature film adaptation of a children’s book could have easily been just that.  Jonze, to his credit, is anything but a bogus filmmaker.  His visions come across on screen every time he steps behind the camera, and, with WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, he  truly  captures the feeling within all children that sometimes it is easier to be the wild thing than the conformed.

At the center of the story is Max, played with irrefutable power by Max Records.  Max is a loner, a child who finds comfort in creating forts out of mounds of snow than.  He has an older sister, who clearly loves her brother, but who still wants to be her own person, and a single mother, played by Catherine Keener, who is just trying to find happiness in the world.  One night, as Max’s mother invites her new boyfriend to the house, Max rebels completely, dressing in his wolf costume, claiming himself the ruler of the household, and even taking a bite out of his mother after she tries to calm him.  Angry and scared, Max runs from the house.

His legs take him into the woods, but his mind takes him so much further.  Max soon finds himself in a makeshift boat at sea.  On the other side of the sea, he finds an island where mystical creatures live.  Max, making his presence known to the creatures soon after coming upon them, comes up with a lie about himself and declares himself king.  Soon, he and the creatures are living their wild lives together, building a giant fort where only things they want to happen happen and coping with the all-too familiarity of family life.

Everything about WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE is captivating and beautiful.  The world Jonze, along with co-screenwriter Dave Eggers, has manifested is one that will send even the most mature adults’ mindsets flying back to their youth.  He takes everything that could be bouncing inside of a nine-year-olds head and splashes it up on the screen in illogical yet brilliant wonderment.  You know from the start that all of this is inside Max’s head, so forgiveness for certain misrepresentations of the world is unneeded.  When Max climbs up the side of a cliff with ease, you never fear for his falling.  When the wild things begin playing dirty (both in the literal and figurative sense) in a game of bombardment, you don’t worry that they may be injured.  Jonze’s representation of the world Max has created allows you the ease to sit back and enjoy what is to come.

But that doesn’t mean the film succeeds only on an entertainment level, either.  There are so many intricacies in the characters, both human and creature, in WILD THINGS that they are far too numerous to pick out on one viewing alone.  Subtle nuances in facial expressions and realistic choices are only a few of these, but there are so many more.  When Max “attacks” his sister’s friends with snow balls in the early moments of the film, you get the feeling that, as with most, Hollywood films, the older boys are going to begin yelling at him, pushing away his adolescents in favor of something more adult, but that doesn’t happen.  They join in and begin flinging snowballs back at him.  It’s when the boys accidentally hurt Max and Max’s retaliation after the fact that drives the notion of his wild thing rearing its ugly head.  This early scene, one of many that key into Max’s inner aggression forcing its way out, is one of many that plays out in magnificent realism both thanks to Jonze’s direction of the scene and the stunning performance by Records.

The monsters, as well, are a work of art unto themselves.  Forgoing the 100% usage of computer effects, Jonze incorporates Jim Henson creature suits and real-life actors inside the suits to bring the characters to life.  That, along with CG facial expressions and the near-perfect voice casting makes the creatures in WILD THINGS some of the most ingeniously crafted non-human characters to ever appear on screen.  Most of the voice actors behind these creatures are perfect, and it would really be giving away too much to go down a list of who plays who.  There’s a certain level of joy that comes from the guesswork in trying to figure out who is who.  One character, however, needs no guesswork, and it is that one actor playing the voice of this one character that gives the casting its only blemish, minute as it may be.  James Gandolfini voices Carol, the protagonist amongst the monsters and, soon after landing, Max’s best friend.  Gandolfini’s voice is so recognizable that it takes a moment to get past that.  Fortunately, thanks to everything else that went into the creation of the monsters, it isn’t long before Tony Soprano subsides and you are able to see the character just for who he is.

I can’t speak on the film without recognizing the beautiful and clever soundtrack.  Made up of songs by Karen O and the Kids, the songs that play throughout the film aid in projecting the themes while capturing an indie feel all to themselves.  With earthy acoustics and child-like vocals, the film’s soundtrack works perfectly either playing over the visuals of Jonze’s film or by itself.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE grasps the essence of Maurice Sendak’s original, children’s book.  Nearly half a century after its first publishing, the story captures the feel of today’s youth far better than anything seen in recent memory.  Inside all of us, there is an aggression that screams to be let out.  Sometimes we act on it, and, for children who don’t fully understand the consequences of their actions, these aggressions can be a strange and frightening experience.  Jonze’s film captures this feeling in everything that comes from it.  But it also captures the love within all of us, the emotion that comes about on the other side of aggression when we realize the consequences of our actions, and we love those we have hurt even more for staying with us.  The film’s story and the visual style are an accomplishment that must be experienced, and they work perfectly in aid of each other.  Both real and powerful, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE is an amazing feat of storytelling that could not have played out better.  It truly is a work of art.