love-hate

All I can say is I really wanted to love this movie.

There are several ways to critique Where the Wild Things Are.
Visually it was incredible; beautifully done. The content, well that is for a professional to tell you about.
In my opinion, it was very sad almost depressing and dissapointing movie. It did not help that we went to see it on our fifth day of rain.
I was surprised that in spite of Maurice Sendak working on this film with Spike Jonze the beautiful story of Max a boy with a very intense imagination one that we can all relate to was turned very dark.
This movie was not for children in any way. I honestly feel that the raw emotions of the six year old in the book were lost with distracting bits of divorced parents, a mom who is dating and a sister who clearly has contracted the disease of teenage angst.
Though for me the worst of it was when instead of being sent to his room with no dinner for bellowing that famous "I'll eat you up" Max runs away from home. His mother chases him for as long as she can keep up with his pace and then stops running and lets him go.
In the end, the six year old has an epiphany after spending time with the monsters that each are clearly a layer of his personality or representing authority figures in his life.
When Carole and the other monsters decide not to eat him through this action or lack there of Max is reassured of the loving family that awaits his return home.
It all sounds so warm and fuzzy but running away from home is a very serious and dangerous event. Even more troubling to me was when Max finally made it home his distraught mother was sitting in the kitchen waiting for him, with dinner of course. In this closing scene they say nothing to each other, she watches him scarf down soup and then rewards him with an enormous piece of chocolate cake.
Ummm if I even so much as ran down the block and came right back that would have been the end of my existence 'for real'.
I should have known, since this is all from a man who was a writer and producer for Jackass The Movie.

It was a fine film. Though it is not what I was expecting and not the best interpretation of a fantastic storybook. Maybe he should have left well enough alone. The appeal of Where the Wild Things Are lies within each one of us; we are Max and we have this island set in our imagination where we have let the wild rumpus loose.