Cast: Max Records, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener
Writers: Maurice Sendak(book), Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers(screenplay)
Genre: Adventure | Drama | Family | Fantasy
Country: US
Release Date: October 16, 2009 (US)
Review
THE film startles and charms and delights largely because Mr. Jonze’s filmmaking. With Where the Wild Things Are, he has made a work of art that stands up to its source, Maurice Sendak’s famous children’s book, and in some instances, surpasses it. There are different ways to read the Wild Things, through a Freudian or colonialist prism, and probably as many ways to ruin this delicate story of a solitary child liberated by his imagination. Happily, Mr. Jonze has not attempted to enlarge or improve the story by interpreting it. Rather, he has expanded it, very gently. The movie is still a story about a boy, his mother, his room, his loneliness and various wild things of his creation.
Manohla Dargis,
The New York Times
THE soundtrack, a mix of faux 1960s pop and a lonely, echoing acoustic guitar, encourages viewers to step back and watch the story as though it happened long ago, or were emblematic of something. Where the Wild Things Are is audacious in its refusal to be reassuring, which makes it hard to love, but also hard to dismiss.
Mick LaSalle,
San Francisco Chronicle
WHERE the Wild Things Are stands as one of 2009’s finest, an emotionally solid, narratively complex movie, visionary in its ability to lock into a confused nine-year-old’s perspective. Reinventing the story to reflect post-modern problems and concerns, the movie illustrates the trauma of being a kid around 2009.
Bill Gibron, Filmcritic.com
Plot
MAX, a rambunctious and sensitive boy feels misunderstood at home and escapes to where the Wild Things are. He lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions. The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. Max soon finds, though, that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships there prove to be more complicated than he originally thought.
