Where the Wild Things Are

The journey that Where the Wild Things Are took to the big screen is almost complex enough to be a movie itself. After two different studios (the project started at Universal, then moved to Warner Bros.), and behind the scenes turmoil that literally delayed the film for years, I wasn't really sure what was going to end up on the screen. What we did get is an incredibly original and poignant film. Despite the kid-friendly ad campaign, and the fact it's based on the beloved storybook by Maurice Sendak, I think adults will take more away from this movie than accompanying children.

And yet, one of the pleasures of this movie is how it understands childhood. Its young hero Max (Max Records) is creative, rambunctious, curious, disruptive, and a seeming rage of confused emotions. In other words, he's a 10-year-old boy. He is slowly just starting to understand the world around him, but there's still too much immaturity within him in order to grasp it all. When his older sister Claire (Pepita Emmerichs) would prefer to hang out with her older friends, than play with him in the snow fort he built in the front yard, he takes it as a personal insult. The anger he feels when those friends proceed to destroy his fort in a game of roughhousing gone too far also seems to confuse him. He lashes out furiously by barging into his sister's empty room, and taking his frustrations out physically on everything he sees around him. When he stops and sees what he's done, he seems shocked by his own actions. There's a lot he doesn't understand. He doesn't understand why his single mother (Catherine Keener) would rather spend time with her new boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) than with him. He also doesn't understand when the teacher at school talks about the possibility of the sun one day dying out. Max doesn't have anyone to confide these feelings of anger and confusion, so he relies on imagination.

All of this is told with minimal dialogue during the film's opening scenes. Writer-director Spike Jonze (Adaptation), along with co-writer Dave Eggers (Away We Go), allows us to see the situation the way Max does. We don't have all the answers, just like he does not. We don't know what happened to his dad, but we can tell by the way Max looks at the one reminder of him in his bedroom that the pain of losing his father is still there. The story that is told here is an honest and simple one. Even when Max escapes into the world of his imagination after having a blow out with his mother during an important dinner date for her, the film remains limited in scope. There is no great adventure, and no great crisis that Max must confront, other than to face his own fears and insecurities. If this all sounds awfully thoughtful and reflective for a family film, you'd be right. I imagine some kids might find themselves restless watching this, but this is still a movie of countless wonders. After Max blows up at his mom, he runs away from home, and finds a discarded boat that takes him to an island of his own imagination - the island of the Wild Things, who each represent a different aspect of Max's personality, or his understanding of the world.

The creature that Max confides in the most is Carol (voice by James Gandolfini), a gentle giant of a monster who shares Max's shy optimism, and dreams of creating a perfect world where there is no pain. He also shares the boy's quick-fire temper. He is prone to brief, destructive outbursts, and is sad by the fact that fellow Wild Thing K.W. (voice by Lauren Ambrose) would rather run off and hang out with her cool new friends, whom he has never met or seen. When he does finally meet her friends, and discovers they are simply owls, he is at a loss as to understand what she sees in them instead of him. He doesn't even understand what they are saying, although others seem to. It is reflective of Max's feelings of confusion toward his sister's friends, and how their ways seem so different to them. Amongst the other Wild Things, there is Judith (voice by Catherine O'Hara), who is moody and a self-described "downer", the bird-like Douglas (voice by Chris Cooper), who seems to represent Max's desire for order in a world that is increasingly becoming chaotic to him, Alexander the goat creature (voice by Paul Dano), who is shy and has come to accept the fact that no one notices or pays attention to him, and Ira (voice by Forest Whitaker) who seems to go out of his way to avoid confrontations and make peace.

The Wild Things themselves are brought to live by costumes and animatronics supplied by the Jim Henson Creature Shop, and computer animation for the faces and more complex movements. It's quite seamless, and we eventually stop trying to tell when it's real and when it's computer generated, and just start accepting the creatures for living beings. These are complex characters, not just walking special effects to amuse the kids. They all have surprisingly complex personalities, especially lead Wild Thing Carol. He is tender and understanding toward Max, but we can see a lot of anger and frustration underneath. He wants to keep his "family" together, especially with K.W. running off to be with her friends, and hopes that making Max their king will help bring them together. When cracks begin to show in his plan, Carol does not know how to react, and begins lashing out violently. It's not just Gandolfini's wonderful voice performance that brings Carol to life, but the effects on display. This is easily the most seamless blend of physical and digital effects I've seen in a long time. All of the creatures that inhabit the island of Max's imagination are surprisingly human, since the screenplay gives them all their own personal story arcs. None of them feel underused, and they all get an opportunity to endear themselves to us.

It's surprising that Where the Wild Things Are works as a complex human drama. It's even more surprising that it works as a simple tale of discovery. For all of its imaginative creatures, Jonze wisely plays it fairly small scale, and keeps Max's tale of self-discovery at the center at all times. There is no villain to threaten our heroes. The worst thing that happens is something every child fears - broken bonds of family and friendship. There is a certain melancholy tone to the film itself, and other than the creatures that inhabit the island, few wondrous sights to distract us. The Wild Things live on an island that seems to be comprised of a barren forest and vast deserts. It gives the film the sense of traveling somewhere far away, while at the same time staying within the confines of our world. This is not a fairy tale kingdom Max escapes to, but rather a far away place where no one can find him, until he wants to be found. It's perhaps reflective of the fact that Max is still young enough to dream up monsters as playmates, but getting old enough to realize that magic itself does not exist.

I greatly enjoyed this movie, but have no idea how children will react to it. Some will relate to young Max, while others might question why the monsters aren't a little more fun, or why they don't crack jokes more often. This is a film that deserves to be seen, however. It also deserves to be thought long and hard about long after it's over. I walked in expecting a visually exciting and fun family film, and ended up getting so much more.

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