La Vie Belem

I think every child, at one point or another, loved Maurice Sendak’s classic 338-word picture book Where the Wild Things Are and wished they were king (or queen) of their own menagerie of wild things. I was no different. That is why when I first saw the trailer not only was I intrigued, but absolutely amazed at how Spike Jonze—who has been M.I.A. since his 2002 Adaptation—had turned this tiny book into a visually stunning 94-minute film.

The buzz surrounding the film was tremendous, especially among those in my demographic, the 20-somethings. But I have to say, it didn’t disappoint me. Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are was so endearing and intimate that it made me long for my childhood and the days where my imagination was infinite.

The film centers around Max (Max Records) and the imaginary worlds he creates for himself. His dad left his family, his sister ignores him and his mother (Catherine Keener), despite loving Max, is focused on paying the bills and finding a new love. This forces Max to retreat into his own creative world with imaginary characters. After one particular fight with his mother, Max storms out of his house, clad in his wolf suit and stumbles upon a boat in a forest. He sails the boat all the way to this mysterious island where he sees a light through the trees. When he investigates as to where the light is coming from he encounters a group of enormous furry creatures around a fire arguing about the loss of one of their members, KW (voiced by Lauren Ambrose). Their leader, Carol (James Gandolfini), is destroying their huts and Max, who had been hiding in the bushes, decides to join in. Although Carol is impressed by Max—”There’s a spark to your work that can’t be taught,” he says—the rest of the group menacingly gangs up on Max in an attempt to eat him. They only cease their torment when Max yells out “Be still!” and explains to them that he is a king with powers that conquered Vikings, creatures, he claims, much bigger than the wild things. Carol then anoints Max as their King. What proceeds next is an example of too much of a good thing: the wild things and Max are enjoying being carefree and spontaneous—they even attempt to create their own world where “everything you want to happen, happens”—until things go horribly wrong and this once perfect world changes.

Jonze has the amazing ability to tell this story without ever saying a word. His subtle ability to show rather than tell is in almost every second of the film. For instance, in one of the first scenes we see Max he is laying on his bed dejectedly staring at the globe his father left him. We get this sense of solitude and sadness that Max must be feeling after losing his father. Jonze cuts to different aspects of the room and we can see that Max is really creative in his projects, but also very lonely since he is forced to play alone. We can already tell that this is a boy consumed by sorrow attempting to escape it with his fantasies.

Yet, not all of the film is tragic. Once Max is with the wild things, the film becomes silly and childlike in its humor. There is a particularly excellent sequence in where the wild things and Max are having a dirt clog fight. Max is telling the opposing team to “Come out” and they respond with “No” to which Max says “Why not?” And they of course say, “Because you are going to hit us in the head with dirt.” This prompts Max to admit very innocently “Man, they’ve really got us figured out.” The childlike naivete and enthusiasm that Max has is really endearing. The fact that he thought that his ploy to lure out his “enemies” by simply telling them to come out would work is really quite sweet. Jonze films the movie so intimately that we feel, just like Max, that we too have the world in the palm of our hands.

By the end, that illusion is lost and real life trumps. Yet, that feeling of childlike wonder is never lost.

Check out my account of my midnight rumpus at Mission Valley for a special screening of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ published in the Independent Weekly’s Arts Blog.