Say Hello to His Furry Friends

Today marks the arrival in movie theaters of Where the Wild Things Are, a.k.a. the Spike Jonze-directed adaptation of a beloved children’s book I never read.

What – it wasn’t a thing where I grew up. Don’t judge me.

The film’s story’s simple: Max (newcomer Max Records, who’s destined for a long and healthy career on the strength of his cool name alone) is a rambunctious little boy in desperate need of familial connection out in the ’burbs.

His single mom, Connie (a moving Catherine Keener), is distracted with work demands and a new boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo), while Max’s older sister is uninterested in paying attention to him. It’s easy to see that he feels betrayed and angry over this sitch, not to mention confused.

He just wants to be a part of something.

On a particularly trying evening, the boy – who, by the way, is prone to wandering off into his mind, into a lonely world of pure imagination all his own that keeps him entertained – experiences the adventure of a lifetime after a confrontation with Connie.

After Max comes downstairs for dinner and finds his mom lavishing her boyfriend with the attention he craves, he goes back upstairs, fuming, and changes into his favorite wolf costume, heads back downstairs, riled up in the worst way, and lets her know he is not a happy camper.

He storms out of the house, his mother running after him, and runs and runs, until ultimately, the boy wanders and escapes into an actual world of pure imagination where the titular Wild Things, big and furry and scary Wild Things, run free.

A world where he will be king.

There, he meets the ever-anxious Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini), as well as Judith (Catherine O’Hara), Ira (Forest Whitaker), Alexander (Paul Dano), Douglas (Chris Cooper), and KW (HBO’s Six Feet Under’s Lauren Ambrose). Soon, Max is having himself a wild rumpus with the Wild Things, to a wondrous soundtrack by Karen O of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and Carter Burwell, and leading them as they build a fort where they can all live. He forms a special bond with Carol, a bond that is as unpredictably dangerous as it is needed by the both of them.

Lest you think so, this world is not a CGI affair (that wouldn’t suit Jonze’s visual language): The film was shot Down Under, which lends it a landscape of dunes and jungles stunningly photographed by cinematographer Lance Acord. Even the Wild Things were achieved using good ol’ fashioned puppetry (for the most part). The naturalistic effect was stirring.

Not being familiar with Maurice Sendak’s source material I can only judge the film on its own merit – which is a good thing – and tell you that the first half is fantastic, full of angst and discovery and adventure.

But then, Where the Wild Things Are hits an art-filmy lull, if you will, that gave it an often disturbing ominous vibe. Jonze and co-writer, author Dave Eggers, gave the film a decidedly adult skew that may not be the cup of tea of kids, and that may leave now-adult fans of the book a bit underwhelmed.

(Not that they care that much – that’s what they were going for, FYI and thankyouverymuch.)

True story: I saw the film with one such mildly unimpressed individual, and he was just like, “I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Not much…happened.”

I agree, and while I appreciated the beauty of Where the Wild Things Are, I didn’t come out of my screening thinking I like, wanted to go back to there.

But what a journey it was.

My Rating **

Photo: Warner Bros.