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Ric and I saw Where the Wild Things Are way back in November when we were on vacation in Monterey. There was a lot of build up for this movie, which had an awesome trailer that was mostly a music video, which makes sense, because director Spike Jonze gained popularity as a music video director. I wasn't too sure about the idea of turning a short children's book into a long movie, but the trailer intrigued me.

The story begins in the real world, where a young boy named Max seems to spend a lot of time feeling lonely. His sister is older and spends time with her friends, and his single mother is dating a guy. As the movie opens, Max is playing in the snow by himself. He builds a sort of igloo fort in a snow drift and attacks his sister's friends for fun. They return the attack, which is fun at first, but soon he's humiliated and devastated when one of the teenagers jumps on top of the fort and smashes it while he's inside. He reacts by making a mess in his sister's room. That, topped with his erratic behavior when his mom has her boyfriend over for dinner, begins a struggle between the two that freaks Max out. He runs away from home, and as he runs, he exits the real world and enters the land where the wild things are. I loved this setup for the film. I actually would have watched an entire movie about Max in the real world, struggling with his loneliness and the uncertainty he felt with how things might change if his mother remarried.

But of course, this movie is about the world Max travels to, which is a land of his own dreaming. In it, Jonze takes the wild things and gives them personalities that reflect the emotions Max is dealing with in the real world. There are characters who are uncertain of their friendships or how to behave appropriately at particular times. I liked this idea, but felt it was almost a little too heavy-handed, because if this was Max's dreamland, it was surprising that it didn't provide a little more escapism for him. His dreams are weird, oddly uncolorful, and a lot of the time, angry and sad. Everything is brown, which seems very different from the famous book illustrations many of us have seen in the children's book that inspired the movie. That's not to say that there aren't plenty of times where one can see the fun kid in Max coming out in his dream world. There are many scenes of him playing with the wild things. They shriek and jump all over the place.

I guess I had difficulties with this movie because it didn't seem to choose a target audience and stick with it. Like I said, it's got a sad/angry streak, which seems like something that the adult audience would understand fairly well. They get what's going on with Max and they understand how the wild things portray his emotions. But then all of the childish scenes of play are a little bit monotonous and seem to appeal to a younger audience; I got a little bored watching those. It must have been hard to decide who the target audience was for this movie, because the children who first knew it are well-grown by now, and they're probably showing the book to a new generation who are still very young. It was definitely a balancing act to try and satisfy the potential audiences for the movie, and unfortunately I don't think Jonze was successful in his attempt to do so.

One place where he does excel, obviously, is the visual aspect of the movie. Despite the mostly monochromatic feel, it's still something to behold. The sets, costumes, creatures, lands, framing, and more were all very rich. Of course, I expected as much. I loved the design of the costume Max wears, especially.

Oddly enough, the Arcade Fire song that was featured so prominently in the trailer is missing from the movie, which I think is a shame. I guess the expectations that the trailer stirred in me were faulty ones. I wonder what I would have thought of the movie if I hadn't seen it? This is exactly why I don't like to watch too many trailers - but since I see so many movies, it's hard to avoid. At any rate, I was able to appreciate enough aspects of the movie to be glad I saw it. I'll have to try watching it again sometime to see if over time my feelings about its core might change.