FILM CHALLENGE: 92) Where The Wild Things Are

92) Where The Wild Things Are

Director: Spike Jonze

Year: 2009

Plot Summary: Young Max has an active imagination and he will throw fits if others don't go along with what he wants. Following an incident with his sister and her friends, and following a tantrum which he throws as a result of his Mother paying more attention to her boyfriend than to him - runs away from home and toward a world in his imagination. This world, an ocean away, is inhabited by large wild beasts. Instead of eating Max like they normally would with creatures of his type, the wild things befriend him after he proclaims himself a king who can magically solve all their problems.

Maurice Sendak's book Where The Wild Things Are was my favourite childhood story and, therefore, has a special place in my heart. If I was Charles Foster Kane from the classic film Citizen Kane, the movie wouldn't open with me dropping a snow globe and saying 'Rosebud' but would rather begin with me dropping a copy of this book and saying 'Let the wild rumpus begin'.

However, despite my love for the book, I was sceptical about the movie adaptation. After all, you can read the book in under a minute so how could they possibly make it a feature length story? What would the central conflict be? What would the plot be? How would the characters develop?

Nevertheless, Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, whose novel Zeitoun I'm currently reading, have achieved the seemingly impossible.

In a boldly unconventional move for a children's film, Where The Wild Things Are actually doesn't have a plot as such and, moreover, the central conflict doesn't involve a villain. At least not a concrete one. The villain here is loneliness, rejection, fear and anger as the young boy attempts to, in his pledge to the monsters early in the movie, 'keep the sadness out'. Where The Wild Things Are is solely about Max's experiences in the land of the Wild Things through which he learns about himself and his family.

In the opening 20 minutes we bear witness the boy's need for attention and how he doesn't get it from his family. His older sister is too preoccupied with her friends to care about the creative igloo he made from snow. His father, though he promised Max he's the "owner of his world", abandoned him and shattered his happy life. And his mother, left to bear the weight of all the families problems, is too busy to give him the constant attention he needs. As a result of this rejection and abandonment he frequently bursts into rage, breaking things in his sisters room and eventually biting his mother.

As a result, he escapes into this fantasy world where each monster is a representation of Max's personality. Carol, the main monster, is his anger, creativity and longing for adoration, Judith is his brazen independence, Alexander is his longing to be heard and his fragile naivety and KW, most importantly, resembles the feeling of maternity he has not felt from his own mother. Here, in his fantasy world among the Wild Things, Max realises how difficult it is to be a happy family. He tries, after being crowned king, to bond them through play fights, building a fort, etc. (representations of things in the opening act like the snowball fight in his garden and the fort he builds in his bedroom, for example) but nevertheless the monsters still 'let the sadness in'.

Therefore, he comes to accept that this fantasy world is not perfect and come to terms with reality; that his family may not be exactly how he wants it to be and he cannot be the "owner of his world". But he also accepts the need for his family despite their faults in the end as he runs back to the loving arms of his mother.

Where The Wild Things Are is a bizarre children's movie that leaves a lot open to interpretation, is completely unlike anything you'll have seen before and is rich in metaphor and symbolism. However, because of all this, Spike Jonze's movie is a must see. Even if only for the gorgeous cinematography, the great voice acting from James Gandolfini and Six Feet Under's Lauren Ambrose and the unbelievable score from Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

4/5

By Daniel Sarath with 1 comment