Where The Wild Things Are

I have a lot of experience reading aloud to children. When I allow them to pick the book, I enjoy seeing what they choose and what they consider to be their favorites. Over the years I’ve noticed that Where The Wild Things Are is in most classroom libraries. It is a beloved book, but as a read-aloud it is seldom chosen because the dialogue is sparse. It is one of those books that children like to read to themselves, where they can brood over it and study the pictures. It’s a great rainy day book, or a time-out book. Or, a book for a parent and a child to read together after a child may have had a particularly bad day. It is this tone and this sentiment the permeates the film adaptation. Spike Jonzes’ Where The Wild Things Are is just plain moody.

From the very opening of the film I had absolutely no trouble entering Max’s world. As an actor, Max Record is so natural and so believable that I had no problem what so ever feeling his pain, or understanding the source of his tantrum. And after getting over the shock of him physically running away instead of mentally doing so, I had no difficulty entering his fantasy life or seeing the correlations between both of his worlds. Even if the island was represented as a real place, there are enough symbols and enough sign posts to shows us that these two worlds are connected. But I wonder how much of this a child would pick up.

Once Max took on the responsibility of being king and maintaining everyone’s happiness in his new monster family, I started losing my enchantment. These monsters were too real, too human, and I was becoming very sad. I knew that Max was in over his head and that the emotional problems of his subjects was too much for him to bear. In an attempt to raise everyone’s spirits, Max suggests a dirt clod fight. I knew from my own childhood experiences, that these things never end well, and with the personalities involved, someone was going to get hurt.

This film is so finely crafted, that my emotional response to it is very deep and very strong. However, like the goat faced character in the movie, I stopped having fun and just wanted to go home. My memories of childhood play gone wrong came flooding back to me and I couldn’t help but re-experience the pain of rejection, the power struggles that happen between children, and the flashes of anger that accompanies jealousy. All those emotions made me feel raw and melancholy, it also made me wonder about the kids.

We often forget that children’s emotions also run deep and that their pain is just as poignant as ours. The biggest difference is that they haven’t learned how to express it, verbalize it, or understand where these emotions come from. I can easily see this film as a catalyst, as a way to open up a dialogue between parents and children. As a parent I can visualize giving a child a two hour time-out with this movie and then discussing it with them afterwards. But as a childless adult I found this movie unsettling and I’m not sure how much I liked it. The film, however, is very well made and illicits a powerful visceral response. It is a work of art which is imaginative and totally worth discussing. It is on these terms that I am recommending this film.

Rating: First Run An artistic and powerful film worth discussing