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starladySo I went to see Spike Jonze' movie Where the Wild Things Are with a very dear old friend of mine who absolutely loves the book last night.
Yeah, it's a really wonderful movie. I kind of would like to see it again, since I wasn't able to get quite as into it as I liked (thanks to my friend's six-year old, who was fidgety for much of it), but it's brilliant, visually and artistically.
The wild things are wonderful, and so is their island, and one of the things I liked best about the movie is all the ways in which it doesn't take the path of a conventional children's movie, or even a movie about childhood. The film never privileges Max's suburban reality with his family over his life as king of the wild things on the island, or vice versa: both are equally real (and in that sense I was reminded of a similar property, Calvin and Hobbes). And when Max goes home at the end, there's no moral lesson dispensed like medicine, no piecrust promises to behave better (though one suspects Max will, as best he can) or platitudes like "I love you" or "I'm sorry"--those things are known already, and there's no need to voice them. Similarly, while several events on the island recall things that happened to Max before he left, the movie doesn't set up any trite one-to-one correspondences like, say, The Wizard of Oz does, relegating the otherworld to the status of a dream.
I don't remember particularly liking the book as a child, but I think I would like it now, and I loved that the movie refuses to simplify or to complexify being a child. Max doesn't understand his own emotions until he sees them in Carol and has to explain them to KW and to Alexander, but controlling our emotions is something that even adults struggle with, as Max's mom shows just before he runs out of the house. Growing up isn't a linear process; becoming is a spiral, and sometimes it collapses, or elongates. Things don't always turn out the way we want them to, or expect them to, and nothing can keep out sadness or unhappiness, if you let them in. On some level even adults are children pretending to be wolves pretending to be kings. The movie also knows that when we're angry and afraid being loved hurts, when we're not sure we're sorry for what we've done being forgiven hurts too. It is difficult being a family, as Max realizes, just as he realizes that when we're scared and lonely we often act out with fear and anger instead of being honest instead. And lost arms won't grow back, nor smashed forts magically rebuild themselves: instead we have to sail on with what we've got.
The movie is unquestionably a trifle slow in the middle, and when I asked the six-year old I saw it with if he liked it, he answered, "It was long." Long, but not terrifying, and he and the rest of us laughed out loud at times. I really liked Bob and Terri, as well, and I wish the movie had shown us what happened to Richard. I feel that he's probably okay, though.
Special bonus discussion of the trailers that we saw!
Yeah, it's a really wonderful movie. I kind of would like to see it again, since I wasn't able to get quite as into it as I liked (thanks to my friend's six-year old, who was fidgety for much of it), but it's brilliant, visually and artistically.
The wild things are wonderful, and so is their island, and one of the things I liked best about the movie is all the ways in which it doesn't take the path of a conventional children's movie, or even a movie about childhood. The film never privileges Max's suburban reality with his family over his life as king of the wild things on the island, or vice versa: both are equally real (and in that sense I was reminded of a similar property, Calvin and Hobbes). And when Max goes home at the end, there's no moral lesson dispensed like medicine, no piecrust promises to behave better (though one suspects Max will, as best he can) or platitudes like "I love you" or "I'm sorry"--those things are known already, and there's no need to voice them. Similarly, while several events on the island recall things that happened to Max before he left, the movie doesn't set up any trite one-to-one correspondences like, say, The Wizard of Oz does, relegating the otherworld to the status of a dream.
I don't remember particularly liking the book as a child, but I think I would like it now, and I loved that the movie refuses to simplify or to complexify being a child. Max doesn't understand his own emotions until he sees them in Carol and has to explain them to KW and to Alexander, but controlling our emotions is something that even adults struggle with, as Max's mom shows just before he runs out of the house. Growing up isn't a linear process; becoming is a spiral, and sometimes it collapses, or elongates. Things don't always turn out the way we want them to, or expect them to, and nothing can keep out sadness or unhappiness, if you let them in. On some level even adults are children pretending to be wolves pretending to be kings. The movie also knows that when we're angry and afraid being loved hurts, when we're not sure we're sorry for what we've done being forgiven hurts too. It is difficult being a family, as Max realizes, just as he realizes that when we're scared and lonely we often act out with fear and anger instead of being honest instead. And lost arms won't grow back, nor smashed forts magically rebuild themselves: instead we have to sail on with what we've got.
The movie is unquestionably a trifle slow in the middle, and when I asked the six-year old I saw it with if he liked it, he answered, "It was long." Long, but not terrifying, and he and the rest of us laughed out loud at times. I really liked Bob and Terri, as well, and I wish the movie had shown us what happened to Richard. I feel that he's probably okay, though.
Special bonus discussion of the trailers that we saw!
- Another Chipmunks movie. Direct quote from me: "My childhood is crumbling before my eyes!" (and that was before the Chipettes appeared singing "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)").
- The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I am still so excited for this movie. Fantastic.
- Some movie about an astronaut who gets stranded on a suburban planet where the natives are terrified of aliens. "You're an alien!" "No, you are!" "No, you!" Oh, brother.
- A Disney Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey playing...everyone, no thanks to Robert Zemeckis, who, not content with ruining one beloved Christmas story with his trademark blend of the worst of CGI and live-action filmmaking (cough! The Polar Express! cough!), is all set to wreak havoc on another. We do not approve.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-22 14:55 (UTC)I'm a little sad to hear it wasn't terrifying, though. I like children's movies that freak me out. That's why Spirited Away is my favourite Miyazaki film -the scene with No-Face chasing Chihiro still give me chills! How would you say it compares to some of the darker kidlit/fantasy adaptations we've seen lately? (I'm thinking even of something like Pan's Labyrinth.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-22 20:30 (UTC)I definitely think most children's movies (with the notable exception of most Pixar films) made in the States are just awful--they totally pander to the lowest common denominator, so that the adults accompanying the children want to shoot themselves, and there's always a happy, safe convenient moral lesson at the end of the third act, usually made way too obviously. This movie definitely goes the exactly opposite way from all that. If anything, I'd say it goes a bit too far into territory where kids have a hard time following (at least younger children; the 6-year old I saw it with had a hard time following the emotional dynamics, because they're fairly subtle), but it's definitely well worth seeing, I'd say.