Where the Wild Things Are – Movie Review

*****Spoiler Alert*****

Yesterday Dave, Rhys & I, along with our friend Cristina & her 2 month old cutie, Amalia needed to get out of the house!  (Rhys did great by the way –slept & ate the whole time) 🙂

As the movie got going I was swept away in my imagination as I believe was intended.  But it became pretty clear about half way through the film that there was no plot.

However, I was willing to forgive the film for not having a plot because of the beauty of the island, the intensity of emotions and the raw vulnerability of the film.

What I couldn’t forgive is this: what was the doggone point? What was the message?  After conversation Dave, Cristina or I couldn’t quite grasp very easily what they were trying to get at.

If they were trying to make me feel sorry for this poor kid who is lonely and displaced, being raised by a single mother, it didn’t work.  His life wasn’t that bad.  Not bad enough for me to feel sorry for him.

If they were trying to communicate that there are lessons to be learned from delving into our imaginative side, what were those lessons? Don’t be mean? Don’t lose your temper?  If that was it, it wasn’t enough.  Plus, I’d want more.  What did Max learn in terms of how he should behave?

And what was up with the ending?  What did that mean?  Is he reconciled with his mother?  This film left to many unanswered questions to be satisfying.

And then there was the violence. Not just the physical violence, but the emotional violence between the monsters.  Were they meant to represent the emotions Max felt with his family or within himself?  If that is true it wasn’t represented well by what they showed of his family life.

And how about hopelessness?  What hope is there that the monsters will ever learn to interact appropriately with one another?  They were sad creatures with no answers.   What did Max learn from them?  What did Max give them but an idealistic vision filled with easy answers (that were based on lies)?

All that said, it sucked me in & I wanted to see how it ended.  It felt like an acid trip gone wrong.  Ya know, you want to finish it, but just feel very unsatisfied? Well, I’ve never been on an acid trip, but from what I hear –sounds like this crazy movie. 🙂

Grade: B-

Recommend:  Wait till the video drops.