Archive for Friday, October 16, 2009
‘Where the Wild Things Are’ is not much fun
October 16, 2009
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Max Records stars as a disobedient boy sent to bed without his supper who creates his own world to rule in “Where the Wild Things Are.’
*1/2
Rating: PG, for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language
Length: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Theater: Southwind Twelve, 3433 Iowa
The author of “Where the Wild Things Are” picked Spike Jonze (“Being John Malkovich”) to direct the long-planned film of the much-loved children’s book. But whatever Maurice Sendak thought the quixotic Jonze would bring to the movie — a penetrating understanding of the thin, allegorical picture book, perhaps — what Jonze delivers, with a script by Dave Eggers, is not a children’s movie at all. This dull, downbeat, yet faithful adaptation has become a “Sesame Street of the Spotless Mind.”
Max Records plays Max, a kid who should be beyond donning his old whiskered wolf suit and terrorizing his mom (Catherine Keener). In a wintry opening built around an ends-in-tears snowball fight with his sister’s teenage friends, Max comes off as an impulsive, hyper and self-centered brat. But he’s sensitive enough to escape to his plush-toy filled room, and to oblige with a fanciful tale when his hard-pressed single mom sighs, “I could use a story.”
But a tantrum in the middle of mom’s date (Mark Ruffalo, in a cameo) reveals Max for the Beastly Boy he is.
“FEED me, woman! Roaaar!”
He bolts from the house, and in his funny costume, stumbles across a sailboat that takes him far away, to the island “Where the Wild Things Are.”
Jonze creates a vivid organic trees-and-stones setting for this Island of Lost Muppets. They’re a sensitive tribe with bad tempers, fragile egos and easily hurt feelings. Max has only to exaggerate his status in the world, and his roar, to convince the plush beasts — voiced by James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Dano and Oscar winners Forest Whitaker and Chris Cooper — that he’s their king. Since he promises to end loneliness and create warm, welcoming sleeping piles of wild things, they go along with him.
“Let the wild rumpus begin!”
If only.
The movie lets Max and the Wild Things allegorically work out worries about relationships, family and mortality. They also build this cool stick fort of Max’s design, but even it gets in the way of their togetherness. Jonze and Eggers fret so much over the group dynamic (Carol, the natural leader, can’t win over K.W., a cute beast with an aversion to selfish bullying) that they leave out the warmth, the magic of discovery and the whimsy.
No wonder Warners made them re-shoot this movie, which was supposed to come out in March of 2008. Jonze plainly didn’t re-shoot enough. Only the romping, wistful childhood-remembered songs by Karen Orzolek (Karen O, lead singer of the rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs) come close to capturing the right tone.
As a children’s film, it’s a bore. And as a grand film enterprise, “Where the Wild Things Are” skirts the line between folly and fiasco. It’s far too striking and thoughtful to dismiss outright. But it is literal and dour enough to make you wonder just why this book has the reputation it does, and what on Earth the author was thinking in pitching it to Jonze. He got so lost in the” things” that he’s left the “wild” and the fun out.
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16 October 2009
at 3:44 a.m.
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audibleangel (Anonymous) says…
hater
16 October 2009
at 8:19 a.m.
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honeychild (Mel Briscoe) says…
hmm…. i wasn't making any definite plans for seeing this but now i am thinking no.
16 October 2009
at 12:21 p.m.
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ChiHawkInKS (Anonymous) says…
Shame, movie looked fantastic in the couple trailers I saw. This is not the first mediocre review I have read either.
16 October 2009
at 9:06 p.m.
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altheasus (Althea Schnacke) says…
Anymore, I think this reviewer just gives positive reviews to the people who pay him for a positive review. Most reviews for this movie are a lot better than this, and those that have been giving it negative reviews tend to be those who are fond of the book, which Moore appears to have not even read.
17 October 2009
at 2:01 a.m.
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flclhack (Maxwell Butterfield) says…
I think that with this movie, you really need to understand what it's trying to do. It's going to work on people with imagination and an appeal to culture, but obviously Mr. Moore seems to have some issues connecting with his inner child.
Shame, really.
17 October 2009
at 7:01 a.m.
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lee_go_hawks (Anonymous) says…
Has anybody seen it yet and liked it?