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Review: Where the Wild Things Are
Directed by Spike Jonze
Written by Spike Jonze & Dave Eggers
Starring: Max Records, Catherine Keener, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker, James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose & Paul Dano
Rated: PG (for some low level violence & scary scenes)
Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is one of my all-time favourite children’s books, second only to the Narnia chronicles. As a kid, I resonated with the character of Max, the boy sent to bed without his supper, imagining his own world of wild creatures, over which he rules as a king. Like him, I let my imagination run wild, drawing maps of other worlds and inventing mythical tales, but at the same time knowing when to return home to my family for my proverbial supper.
So I was pretty excited to see how Spike Jonze’s would translate this slim (only 9 sentences long), beloved masterpiece into a full-length, big budget blockbuster. And I must admit that on the whole I wasn’t disappointed. I mean it would be easy to bemoan the fact that Max’s bedroom doesn’t morph into a jungle, or that at 101 minutes it feels a touch bloated with one too many episodes of skylarking. But basically he’s got the vibe of Sendak’s classic right. Max’s exodus from the coldness of the real world to the bright imaginary land of the Wild Things and back again beautifully captures the bittersweet transition from childhood to adulthood. Jonze nails it with spare, natural acting from Max Records and Catherine Keener, quirky voicework by an inspired cast, Karen O’s energetic score, exquisite cinematography and set design, and seamless use of costuming and CGI. The resulting piece is delightful, wistful and fun, without being overly nostalgic or sentimental or manufactured. Though through the eyes and lens of an adult, this is a genuine, charming celebration and commiseration of childhood.
In fact for me, Jonze’s film goes beyond mere cinematic adaptation, it is an emotional evolution, supplying the sparse story with some real depth and warmth otherwise only hinted at in the book. At the heart of the movie is Judith’s line to Max, “It’s hard being a family”. As we see illustrated in the film’s opening, families promise so much - love, care, unconditional acceptance – yet so rarely deliver. Without over psychologising it, Max’s imaginary island away from the pain of his broken, dysfunctional family life, is a place for him to safely work through what it means to belong to a family unit and care for others. It’s a chance for him to see life without himself at its centre as king, with each of the Wild Things functioning like emotional elements of his self and his existence to be negotiated.[1] Indeed, Max’s story at the beginning of the film foreshadows this theme, the difficult journey from kid to grown-up:
“The vampire bites off the top of a building and loses his teeth. Another vampire says, ‘Why are you crying? Those are your baby teeth.’ And he says, ‘No, they're not. They're my adult teeth.’”
Though the underlying philosophy of Sendak and Jonze’s work may be light years from a Christian worldview, Where the Wild Things Are still rings true on a number of levels. Though we all imagine ourselves as kings in charge and control of our lives, it’s patently clear that this is not the case. 6.8 billion kings on one small planet does not make for a functional existence. Like Max - "a boy pretending to be a wolf pretending to be a king" - we’re all faking it as rulers! None of us has the power and ability to truly “make the sadness stay away”. And the sooner we each realize the truth that the crown is not ours to wear, but our creator God’s, the sooner we will be able to make sense of the dysfunctional nature of our lives. The truth is our families will always disappoint us, being part of them will always be hard, but being a member of God’s family through Jesus is the greatest blessing we can ever experience. Because only in Jesus - the king who came not to be served, but to serve - will we have any real hope of finding true and enduring love, care and unconditional acceptance (Mark 10:45). Only then will we be able to spiritually grow up, give up our “childish” self-centred ways, and whole-heartedly love others as the family we were meant to be (1 Cor 13:11-13).
By Mark Barry
16/12/2009
[1] Not dissimilar from kids playing superheroes to work out what it means to live in moral universe and how to figure out right from wrong.
