Review: Where The Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are, directed by the eccentric and uber-talented Spike Jonze, is a film that I just can’t wrap my head around. If the review seems a little short, thats probably the reason.
Jonze wanted to be as faithful as possible to Maurice Sendak’s classic, but still put his own spin on it. This has both positives and negatives. Visually, the film captures the look and feel of the book, but Jonze’s unmistakable style is apparent. The wild things are wonderous to look at and I kind of wish they weren’t shown in the commercials or anything because I really love the look of them.
However, where the visual elements soar, the story elements seemingly fall flat.
After a fight with his mother, a young boy named Max, sails to an island inhabited by the “wild things”. He befriends them and they make them their king. The film accomplishes creating this metaphor of family and childhood effectively and I think its something that is far deeper and intelligent then almost any kind of film directed at children as ever been.
That being said, the film has very serious pacing issues. The middle 80% of the film is completely uninteresting story wise and not until the dirtball fight does the movie really start to get some life into it. I don’t know what Jonze, and co-writer David Eggers, could have done to liven it up while still being truly faithful to the book. Its a tad overdramatic (especially with its musical cues), trying to drive home these emotional moments, especially towards the end. I won’t say it doesn’t work, but I don’t know if its the way I would have gone.
Jonze clearly knew what he wanted to do with Where The Wild Things Are, and visually he delivered the kind of inventive work we have come to expect from him. However, I just don’t think there was enough meat in the original story to deliver a fulfilling plot.
