I don’t remember ever being caught as emotionally off-guard as I was with Where the Wild Things Are. Spike Jonze is a great filmmaker and the film has always looked fantastic from day one, but knowing a movie would turn out great and knowing it would squeeze your soul are two very different things.
In Maurice Sendak’s original story (which is shorter than this review), boy-in-wolf-suit Max is sent into his bedroom without supper after lashing out. There, he imagines a jungle filled with big creatures who he goes on a “wild rumpus” with. Jonze’s film, from an adaptation by Jonze and Dave Eggers, digs a little deeper into why Max (played by a very good Max Records) is as wild as he is. The backstory isn’t there to explain Max, but there’s more to his rebellion that’s showed with just enough insight, leaving a lot to figure out still.
In a bout of rebellion, Max bites his mother and runs away from home crying. He finds a sailboat and takes it to sea, eventually docking on a land populated by the Wild Things. The Wild Things aren’t treated as magical creatures or foreign entities; they’re fully realized characters with personalities that share Max’s naivete and uncertainty. Every one of their voice actors are absolutely perfect, led by James Gandolfini as Max’s surrogate Wild Thing, Carol. Who knew that Gandolfini has a voice so heartbreakingly vulnerable and exposed?
Where the Wild Things Are doesn’t have a plot because it doesn’t need one. The bulk of the movie is just Max playing around with the Wild Things on a deserted island. Building projects, running up and down the woods, getting filthy in dirt clot fights—but it’s far from whimsy. Each playful scene contains telling moments that reveal just a little more about where the characters are coming from. The variety of personalities eventually butt heads in complex ways, often only subtly expressed with wordless looks and body language (and this is where the visual effects really show the depths its sophistication). The characters’ biggest problem is that they’re not articulate or wise enough yet to deal with their emotions, so they respond with actions. Before long, there are shouting matches, deep-cutting words and hurt feelings; ultimately leading to violent, emotional outbursts. It's an internal, relationship based, angst dealing film—not an adventure.
I’m stunned by how in tune it is with the kind of emotions that kids are susceptible to. It never once panders, never once treats kids like they need a lesson or big brother’s wisdom like most children’s movies; because that would be against the very thing the film tries to convey, which is the frustration of just being at an age where you can no longer be indulged as innocent—and you know you’re not innocent anymore—but not quite taken seriously, either. An age where the people you love either ignore or pacify you, rather than taking the time to understand your loneliness. The themes that take center stage in this film are not easy to chew, even for adults.
It’s not that Max’s mother and older sister purposely neglect him, but they have their own lives to worry about which don’t always include him. Max doesn’t understand why. His sister has just turned into a teenager and discovered her own circle of friends that are understandably not on the same wavelength as him. His single mother (played briefly but resonantly by Catherine Keener) has to deal with a stressful job to support the family, as well as making time for a happy new romance that keeps her together. To Max, all he sees is that his family is being stolen away from him by strangers. He tries to communicate this in a creative way, first by telling his mother a story about a vampire whose teeth fall out and “all the other vampires leave him, because he can’t be a vampire anymore.” We get the sense that the Wild Things are another way Max expresses his loneliness.
I haven't been this moved by a movie in a while. It's not just emotional on an existential, human level like most movies that manage to wring out my tears. It digs really deep into childhood memories and emotions. This is Spike Jonze's best, most personal movie to date. A brilliant, lingering and astonishingly shot masterpiece that is as expressive, haunting and deeply resonant as any movie is capable of. It’s about acknowledging the baser or wilder instinct in you and setting it free in order to start coping.
The essence of the movie is compartmentalized in Max’s first scene with the Wild Things. Upon arriving on the island, Max peeks through the bushes to see Carol wrecking tumbleweed-like huts. The other Wild Things don’t understand what Carol’s doing, leaving him disappointed that his attempt to keep them together failed. Sensing Carol’s sadness, Max jumps out and starts going crazy on the huts. Carol sees this and smiles. “See? This guy gets it!”
I hope more people do, too.
"Where the Wild Things Are" opens October 16, 2009 and is rated PG. Drama, Fantasy. Directed by Spike Jonze. Written by Spike Jonze & Dave Eggers. Starring Catherine Keener, Catherine OHara, Chris Cooper, Forest Whitaker, James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Mark Ruffalo, Max Records, Paul Dano.
