Where the Wild Things Are 2009
This is a movie I was really looking forward to. It is directed by Spike Jonze who did such a great job on Being John Malkovich among other favorites, and the subject matter comes from one of my favorite children’s books. The problem with making a movie out of such a short book is there wasn’t much of a story. It seems like the book was more about Maurice Sendak’s great drawings of monsters than any real plot. So a plot was created for the movie involving a moody tween-aged son of a single mother (seems like Max in the book was younger, but it would be hard to get decent acting out of a kid so little). He goes to an island and meets a bunch of moody monsters who make him their king. So most of the movie just shows these moody characters interacting. I enjoyed seeing the monsters brought to life and hearing them talk like normal people and having normal people problems. And I even liked the characters despite the moodiness. I guess the lack of further development or any resolution is what left me a little flat. I kept thinking that maybe there were direct parallels from the real world into the monster world that Max is experiencing, but I don’t really have any idea since I don’t see that much about Max in the real world. Certainly there are implied parallels. Anyway, I enjoyed the concept of the movie, but was ultimately disappointed. So I will have to give this movie a B-.
Written: 12 Apr 2010
Owned on: Digital