Where the Wild Things Are

Directed by: Spike Jonze

Screenplay by: Jonze & Dave Eggers, inspired by the book and illustrations by Maurice Sendak

Starring: Catherine Keener, Max Records

With the voices of: James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker, Chris Cooper

I love the beginning of this movie. It starts out with Max (played beautifully by the young Max Records), experiencing all the highs and lows, complications and injustices, manic love and hate, peace and wildness etched into each normal day of childhood. The illustrations and spirit of the book are, at moments, brought to life in an exciting and multi-dimensional way. There is a sadness to childhood and innocence, the movie suggests, and deep need for love among all of us, children and adults alike. The "wildthings" are, visually, pulled right from the book and transformed into three-dimensional characters complete with voices, expressive eyes, and feather-soft fur that trembles in the breeze. I'll admit though, that in the middle acts of the film I lost some faith in Jonze and Eggers. Maybe I was expecting the wildthings to have deeper voices, or was hoping for a slightly darker and more concrete plot line. Instead I found the plot with the wild things to be a bit vapid, only because it seems to reach for a depth that isn't quite there.

Overall, however, Where the Wild Things Are is a film about its characters and their complexities rather than about action or roller-coaster plot, like so many other family films, and that's what sets it apart. Don't expect the extraordinary, but enjoy the simplicity and humanness of this film.