Where the Wild Things Are

Cross-posted from my LiveJournal:

We went to see Where the Wild Things Are yesterday.

Going in, I didn't want the film to be longer than 90 minutes. 80 minutes was probably my desired length, but no more than 90 to be sure. The trailers had convinced me that Spike Jonze had approached the film with a reverence that was appropriate, and the fact that Maurice Sendak was fully supportive and involved also convinced me that I needed to see this. Not least of all the influences on me seeing it was my love of the source material.

I don't need to have a literal translation of a book or comic to enjoy a film of it. All I need is for the film to capture the spirit of the story.

Where the Wild Things Are is a wonderful film. It perfectly captures the confusion of childhood and the escape that imagination affords. There are literal translations of the book into the film, the wild rumpus for instance, but it's the expansion of the story that makes it so good. The Wild Things are just that. Despite having names and speaking parts, the Wild Things are pure emotion. They are the emotions that Max has felt and experienced from others, and they're as confusing in personification as they are in life.

The farther the viewer is away from childhood, the more likely one is to appreciate the sentiments that Jonze has put into the film. Viewers under the age of 35 may need a few more years experience to understand what he's done here, but I came away from the theater having fully enjoyed myself. I laughed, I gasped and I cried. I left full of happiness and joy.

This is not a kid's movie, this is a movie about being a kid. It's something that not enough people have valued and may never understand. From a parent's perspective, there are moments that will scare the daylights out of younger children on the big screen. This is a PG movie, not for swearing or any of the things that we've come to expect, but for IDEAS that challenge us as viewers. For the brief moments of in-your-face scary violence.

The Wild Things, as I noted above, are wild things. I also mentioned at the start of this that 'we' went to see the film. This was me and my wife, two adults in their 40s, who went. There were lots of children, but I think the adults and parents (not necessarily mutually exclusive) enjoyed it more than the kids.

Don't expect a 90 minute version of the book. Expect a film that's evolved from a beloved book. Go in with your eyes and your mind wide open and look to enjoy it.