Where the Wild Things Are Movie Review

When I first walked out of thetheater after watching Where the Wild Things Are, I thought I didn’t like it. Hate might be too strong a word, but I was definitely not pleased. Yet I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since…

Going into the movie I had fairly low expectations, in fact I was only going because other people I was with really wanted to. And while I enjoyed the book as a child and had fond memories of it,it was hardly in the same league as any number of other books I really loved when I was a little dude. (When they make a Richard Scarry movie I’ll show up to the premier in an apple car dressed like Lowley). I figured it would just be a weirdo kid’s movie with some iconic characters that traded on the nostalgic passion people felt for the book but really didn’t offer up much of anything it could call its own.  Boy was I wrong.

The fact that I was so unhappy coming out of the theater speaks volumes to why this is such a fantastic film. The feelings it pulled up in me were so strong and unexpected that I don’t think I was able to separate my personal emotions from my opinion of the film itself,so I just lashed out and blamed the film. Sort of like how I hate the hospital because being there brings up all these negative emotions in me yet I know that the hospital itself has nothing to do with my reaction to it. I can’t help but get childishly angry at the hospital for not being able to save my grandfather or bringing up my fear of the mortality of all those I care about. And that sort of unrefined, illogical emotion is what WTWTA is all about. I thought I didn’t like it because it hit me in a harsh, unpleasant way.

Joking on our way out of the theater about not liking it, my friend said “If I wanted weird and depressing,I’d just think back to my own childhood.” And hell, there it is. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before, Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers truly captured what it was to be a messed up nine year old; all these confusing, conflicting emotions that are impossible to understand. Joy, loneliness, rage, uncertainty, love and hope all violently thrashing about inside the same mind, manifesting in unexplainable thoughts and behaviors; raw, unfiltered emotion. It pulled me back to a time when I was Max, in fact it made me realize that in a lot of ways I still am Max. When one of the monsters asks “Will you keep out all the sadness?” I think of myself asking the same question countless times before in a million different ways.

This is not a happy kid’s movie,but it’s not all doom and gloom, in fact there are a number of moments of such unbridled exuberance that I was reminded of those youthful summer days when everything seemed perfect. What it captures so flawlessly is the fragility of every moment when you are a kid; it only takes an instant for the most exciting,wonderful thing to turn into tears, hurt and fear. The world is beyond your control and you struggle to even comprehend things so much larger than yourself.

This is the most personal review I’ve ever written and that in and of itself says something about how deeply I was touched; WTWTA is an intensely personal film. I imagine that different people will come away from the film with different feelings based upon their own childhoods and what emotions they most connect with. It is a rare and impressive piece of work that can inspire that sort of individual interpretation and create such a powerful experience. The film will take you back to when you were nine and dig into what that was for you; the good and the bad. For some, myself included, this is tough to experience and the reverberations will be felt for a long time after.

I haven’t talked about it yet because in a lot of ways it’s so secondary to the experience, but as a piece of craft, everything is incredible. Thanks to remarkable work from all involved,the production serves the story, not the other way around. The fact that everything is so impressively done from a technical perspective creates a near flawless channel through which to experience the emotional ride. First and foremost, the monsters come to life with amazing voice acting, puppet work and visual effects. Their realism makes the imaginative surrealism of the film even more powerful. Max Records as Max is perfect, Catherine Keener as his mother is perfect, and the rest of the real life cast, despite their very limited screen time, are all perfect. The score works just as it should, never overpowering but always setting the tone. And overall, everything is just visually stunning.

I don’t yet know if I actually want to see the film again because it was so powerful for me but I can with 100%certainty say that everyone should go see it. You might end up thinking it was just a great wild rumpusy time. You might think it was boring and overly sentimental group therapy with muppets. Or you might hate the experience and walk out a depressed mess. And for that reason, I think it’s one of the best films ever made and without a doubt the most unflinching, authentic expression of childhood, in all its wonder and despair, ever put to film.

Originally published on Turtley Awesome, the Matt Loter internerd extravaganza.