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Feature article
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‘Wild Things’ gets the grown-up treatment
By Lane Blevins
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“Where the Wild Things Are”
3 stars (out of 4)
STARRING: Max Records
DIRECTED BY: Spike Jonze
RATED: PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour, 34 minutes
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I first heard about the Spike Jonze-directed “Where the Wild Things Are” back in 2006, when some early production photographs were leaked on the Internet. I immediately became excited.
The photos showed a most implausible adaptation of a kid’s book by today’s standards — they showed real people in really big fuzzy suits. No computer animation. No bells or whistles.
Almost immediately after the photos went out, the film went into turnaround (fancy schmancy Hollywood speak for “movie purgatory”). Apparently, the studio big wigs were having trouble accepting Jonze’s vision of the beloved children’s book.
However, compromises were made and, finally, this weekend we got our “Wild Things” movie — and it defies classification.
First, empty your mind of any thought that assumes this to be a kid’s movie. Don’t misunderstand me — the film is not dirty or violent. In fact, it is a comparatively soft PG. Instead, the film is artsy, creative, complex and metaphorical. Spike Jonze made his movie for adults.
Believe me, I speak the truth. My girlfriend and I went to a Saturday morning showing. There we were, seated in the middle of a theater surrounded by a birthday party full of 6-year-olds. By one hour in, they were running up and down the aisles. The film had completely lost them.
My favorite thing about this movie was how intimately it portrayed the life and times of a boy on the cusp of growing up. When the film begins, Max (a very talented newcomer named Max Records) struggles to understand and cope with the constant progression of life. He has experienced the loss of a parent. His sister has outgrown him and become disinterested in the childish games they used to play together. His mother has met a new man.
When Max can’t handle or disapproves of what is going on around him, he likes to put on his tiger suit and turn into a wild animal. But after a particularly wild outburst, he runs from the house with his mother yelling after him.
Max eventually ends up in a wooded area near his home. At a lake side, a sailboat pulls up and takes Max to where the wild things are.
I read an interview with Spike Jonze about a month ago. He said he really started to get excited about this project when he finally cracked the screenplay. The key element — each of the Wild Things represent some part of Max. Carol, the head honcho of the wild things, is a mirror image of Max in one of his tantrums. Carol represents his anger and his fear of loneliness.
Sounds like pretty heady material for a child, no? The movie is chock full of metaphorical elements like this.
It should be noted that when a movie taps into pure emotion and true-to-life imagery as this one does, it could be perceived as downright boring. If you were to narrate the first half hour of this film, the story would feel like a series of mundane events — Max builds an igloo, his sister’s friends smash it, he gets upset and trashes her room, so on and so forth.
However, Jonze paints such an amazingly accurate and evocative picture of childhood. When Max builds the igloo, he takes time to smell the snow. He plants his face in it and ponders how it tastes. I loved that about this movie. It is a love letter to childhood.
On the downside, there were scenes that felt like they were hewn a little too rough. It is a common symptom when dealing with a film that has seen struggle between director and producers. There were scenes that didn’t seem to fit and an obvious feeling of a film that has been utterly cut to death.
Overall, I recommend checking out this picture. It is unique in a way that only Jonze knows how to deliver. But you’ve been warned — there is a good chance that younger children won’t have a great time.
--------GoTriCities--------
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