-SPOILER ALERT-

Friday while in California, we took just my son to see the new Where the Wild Things Are movie.  I wanted to share my opinions of the film….but first I want to tell you about the book.

I, like so many others, grew up reading Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are”.  It was a book I made sure was in my children’s library, one that I read often to them.  I have always interpreted the book in this way:  Max, as most young kids, made mischief- annoyed his mother one too many times and was sent to bed without supper.  I love that he uses his imagination to create a whole world to play in, a place where he fits in.  Max is in a mood to be wild, so he imagines a world that is filled with “wild things”- a place where he can be wild and not get in trouble.  Eventually Max burns off his energy, maybe feels remorse for his behavior to his mother and returns home.  Home, to find his warm dinner waiting for him, which he eats with a smile on his face.

To me, it has always been a book about a boy being- well, a boy!  Taking his boyish rough-housing too far, being sent to his room to calm down, which in his own time he does, and then is able to return to his life.

I think it is important to understand my background with the book to understand my opinion of the film.  The film starts out with Max and his sister alone at home in the winter.  Max is trying to get his sisters attention, but she’s too busy talking on the phone and ignores him.  Long story short his sisters friends show up, destroy Max’s fort and leave him crying…his sister does nothing and drives off with the friends.  Max is hurt and angry and lashes out by destroying his sisters room.

I found myself constantly leaning over to my 7 year old explaining what was going on, “Max is crying because his feelings are hurt”;”Max is messing up his sisters room because his feelings are hurt that she did nothing and he feels angry”…. and so on through out the WHOLE film!

Basically Max is an emotionally messed up little boy, seems he is still reeling from his parent’s divorce.  He is upset about his Mother’s new boyfriend and clearly doesn’t know how to express himself (as most children in that situation don’t).  When he finally gets to the land of the “Wild Things”, they are just as messed up as he is!  I think unraveling who each of the “Wild Things” represent would be a child psychologists dream come true!  Each character represented (IMO) an emotion that Max was dealing with or a person in his life.

The story line was disjointed (if there was much of one), the film has a depressing and sad feel to it.  The only time my son actually laughed and enjoyed the film was during the snowball fight and the dirt clod fight.  He was mildly interested in the fort building, but mostly he kept asking us (starting about 20 min into the film), “how much longer until the movie is over?”.

This is NOT a children’s movie.  I think the only kids who might actually grasp some of the context of this film would be teenagers, however I don’t think teenagers are going to attend this film when they can watch the latest Vampire Sexcapade.  This film is meant for adults plain and simple.  The soundtrack is fantastic and Jonze has an artistic interpretation of the book, I think this movie (again, IMO) will get it following as a cult classic, but not as a family film.

Personally, I’m not sure why they chose to turn a classic piece of children’s literature into a somewhat dark adult themed film, but they did.  After reading this LA Times article on Sendak the man, it is clear that he himself is an unhappy individual, which I am sure translates into why he signed off on the screen-play.  The book had the potential to be a fantastic film meant for children, it could have been a fun film, filled with hope and wonder about childhood- while still retaining it’s “non- disney” appeal.

That’s my 2 (or 12!) cents on the film.  Did you see it, did you bring your kids?  What did you think?

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