Film Review: Where the Wild Things Are

After so many people I’ve talked to have panned Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are,” I feel the need to voice my own opinion.  Take it for what you will, but I thought Jonze made all the right choices.  The film follows the imagination of young Max (Max Records), a boy wrestling with feelings of anger, loneliness, sadness, and fear as he deals with his parents’ divorce and the fragmentation of his nuclear family.  After a fight with his mother, he runs away, and sails to an island inhabited by Wild Things.  Here his emotions and his family relationships are played out in the society of the Wild Things. 

Overall the film is beautiful and stunning, and the even smallest details have been artfully thought out, from the unfinished “fort” the Wild Things begin to construct and the amazing world constructed by Carrol to the chocolate cake peace offering in the final reunion with Max’s worried mother (Catherine Keener).  There are two major complaints that I’d like to address.  The first is that the film is not meant for children. The film’s narrative simplicity coupled with it’s emotional depth might make it a bit difficult to understand for today’s children, which is a pity.  While some parents may find it too scary for their young children, I should hope that parents are never afraid to allow their children to contemplate strong emotions which can be scary and confusing in the real world as well as on screen.  I think the film is an excellent learning and talking point for parents and their kids, without being condescending or diminishing of the feelings that Max has so much difficulty expressing.

The second complaint I’ve encountered from mostly young adults is that the film had no plot and was boring.  Here is where I would like to most strenuously disagree.  While I would agree that there is not a conventional plot, and that little is really resolved at the end of the film, it so plausibly follows the path of a child’s imagination that it is delightfully entertaining and emotionally satisfying to watch.  I found myself laughing out loud one minute at absurdities and crying over them the next. 

My main fear about this film is that people will find it too complicated or too difficult to engage in because they have to think to understand it.