Two time Oscar nominated director Spike Jonze ('Being John Malkovich' and 'Adaptation') has been attempting to bring this acclaimed children's book to life for going on four years and he has finally crafted a wonderful picture that displays his vision. "Where the Wild Things Are" is intelligent, beautiful looking and mixes Jonze's mature tones of his film work with the playful nature of his early short films, music videos and commercials. Max Records (who plays the boy Max whom created this world) is terrific and believable every second he's on screen. The voice talent is absolutely impeccable and the CGI and man-in-a-suit tech mix is perfect. This is the best live action kids film of the 2000's and perhaps one that will go down as a classic some day. And yet I'm not giving it the 4-stars I figured I would.
Nothing is particularly wrong with the film and yet I don't find it as a whole perfect. It is a quiet film that's power is delivered more from tone and imagery then from language and in some ways that could be what holds it back for me. Jonze co-wrote the screenplay with Dave Eggers and it's well done coming from something that was about ten pages of little writing, but doesn't feel quite set in place. What I mean to say is the film doesn't feel like it's supposed to be done when it is emotionally. And emotions are what the picture and story are truly driven by. It begins with the perfect way of showing a lonely child trying to have a good time with Max in fully wolf suit trying to chance and assault the dog. He acts out, destroys things, feels remorse and disappointment. All this is reflected in the world of the wild things and then some. Max's relationship with Carol is one of love, disappointment and to some extent fear. His relationship with KW is more of love, respect and admiration.
For adults and teens who can use their brain for more than just texting in leet speak they'll get who is who and what is what. For kids this is a terrific film for them to grow up with and see what they get out of it as they age. By the way yes you can take your kids. While at times the tone is dark and certain parts get tense; it's still something most kids could handle. I would call this "The Never Ending Story" good where it's perfect for kids to watch throughout their life and gain meaning from and then share it with their kids. Cause for me now... that movie still has some bizarre things in it (the horse dying part).
"Where the Wild Things Are" is so many things and I feel that one day I can call it absolutely great, but for right now it's like how I felt after "The Fountain". Original, beautiful and strong, but it has some work to do on me. It's been about three years now and it's starting to work. Hopefully this will work just as quickly.
"Where the Wild Things Are" *** 1/2 out of ****
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