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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Where the Wild Things Are

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#1 of 3 Posted Oct-14 10:09 PM

From Harveycritic Posts 1637 Last Jan-30
To All [Msg # 23979.1 ]

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Warner Bros/ Village Roadshow
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: C
Directed by: Spike Jonze
Written By: Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers, from Maurice Sendak’s book
Cast: Max Records, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo, Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper, James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker
Screened at: Regal E-Walk, NYC, 10/14/09
Opens: October 16, 2009

In reviewing the Caldecott-Medal winning book “Where the Wild Things Are” in the New York Times, Bruce Handy states that “Sendak’s classic may be one of those books appreciated more by adults than by kids.” Spike Jonze’s movie and the book on which it is based are about the inability of a child to express his anger at home. In fact someone had said that the book served as a “construct to understand the writer’s own anger.” We’re getting into Freudian analysis: that may explain why adults can relate to the so-called children’s story better than those for whom it was targeted.

However, whether adults OR children can relate to Spike Jonze’s filmed version of the 300+ word book is questionable. The opening quarter hour is stunning, among the most vivid expressions of a kid’s mixed emotions as ever has been put on celluloid. Skipping over the option of a slow start in order to develop characters, Jonze finds Max (Max Records) in a vaguely lupine costume expressing all the joy that comes from chasing a furiously barking dog—who is either excited about a game or scared out of his wits—soon capturing the four-legged ball of fur in a loving but partly sadistic wrestling hold. Full of himself, high on his own adrenaline, he races outside laughing, hiding behind a fence, then taking on a half-dozen teenagers including his older sister with a barrage of snowballs. They hit back, but when Max takes cover inside an igloo he’d spent considerable time building, one of the adolescents jumps up, pouncing on the structure and on Max, destroying the edifice and changing the boy’s expression from glee to tears. After watching his sister ignore him to go off with those of her own age, he heads indoors to see his divorced mom (Catherine Keener) smooching over red wine with her evening dinner date (Mark Ruffalo), all of which puts him into a frenzy. Demanding attention, he jumps on the dining table, warned to get off by his mother, culminating in his biting mom on the shoulder and arousing her fury. Guilt-ridden and aggressive all at once, he stalks out of the house into a world of his own imagination—which puts him into a sailboat across a wide sea into a jungle filled with the wild things.

So far, great. What bogs the picture down are not the action scenes: these are fine, including a dirt fight with the animals
he encounters and the joy of mayhem with the furry but mostly ugly creatures who are eight feet tall and who look on the stranger with mixed emotions. The downer is the conversations that the morose creatures have with one another, who, granted are a sad and dejected lot, but which come across to us in the theater as though they were not on a cinematic stage projecting their voices but in their small living room, talking in quiet, non-dramatic, all too low-key tones. The dialogue, in fact, is so matter-of-fact, delivered with such desultory tones, that whatever they say gives us difficulty to follow the distinct personality of each member of the jungle community.

We should mention for those who are not aware of the broad plot outlines that Max is at first put on trial, so to speak, the animals soon deciding that they might as well eat him. When Max asserts himself, declaring himself to have special powers including the ability to make them happy, they crown him king. He gets all the attention he needs. The bickering, aimless animals get someone to follow. Carol (James Gandolfini) is the leader of the pack, second in command after King Max, who cheers when Max’s first order is “Let the wild rumpus start!” A jumping, thumping, joyful melee follows. They have their jealousies and joys just like people, with bickering against Carol from Judith (Catherine O’Hara), and with Carol’s girlfriend KW (Lauren Ambrose) on the verge of a breakup. Otherwise, the chatter continues, we the audience not to blame if we are in the position of a psychoanalyst, tired from most of a day’s appointments, listening to the kvetching of the day’s last, and quite dull, patient.

Aside from the weakness of dialogue both in content and delivery, there is little narrative drive. We’re not going from point A to point D, to say nothing of grasping a chance to reach point B. The Australian locations, though, are dramatic, all filmed nicely by Lance Acord using a hand-held camera to film the sensational opening moments, but nothing really changes. The animals will go back to their neuroses after Max leaves, and Max, to be greeted by his mom with a big hug, will revert to his wild, sensitive, egotistical self—soon forgetting that the people he deals with have feelings as well as he.

Rated PG. 100 minutes. © 2009 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

#2 of 3 Posted Oct-19 4:12 PM

From Nancy Crays Posts 8 Last Jan-26
To Harveycritic [Msg # 23979.2 23979.1 ] (Unread)

I read several good reviews before going to see this movie, but I thought it was mostly boring after he got to his imaginary world. Both my husband and I doubted children would really understand it or be able to make the connections between Max' imaginary world and real life. I should have read your review first and stayed home.

Nancy C.
Seniors Community
Investing for Growth Forum

#3 of 3 Posted Oct-19 4:18 PM

From harveykarten Posts 798 Last Feb-7
To Nancy Crays [Msg # 23979.3 23979.2 ]

Yes, Nancy. The main reason for the boredom as I stated in my review is that the characters were talking to one another in low key rather than projecting to the audience.

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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Where the Wild Things Are

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