Spike Jonze brings the Maurice Sendak children's classic to life in Where The Wild Things Are.

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MOVIE REVIEW (ONLINE EXCLUSIVE) Where The Wild Things Are

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
Starring Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara
Directed by Spike Jonze
4 stars (out of 5)
In his screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Charlie Kaufman astutely suggested, “Sometimes I don’t think people realize how lonely it is to be a kid.” Well, it’s abundantly clear that Kaufman’s former collaborator Spike Jonze fully understands the gamut of childhood emotions. In this inspired adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s picture book, Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) unleashes a wild rumpus equally informed by exuberance, love, frustration, and melancholy.

Nine-year-old Max (Max Records) reacts to catching his single mom (Catherine Keener) snogging her new boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) by donning his wolf pyjamas, launching an almost-feral fit, and running away from home. Escaping into a rich fantasy world, he sails to the land of the Wild Things — towering creatures brought to life by some truly astonishing puppetry. Crowned their king thanks to his promise to “keep out all the sadness,” Max and his subjects indulge in dirt wars and the construction of a gargantuan fort. Alas, they soon discover that there’s just no keeping the sadness out as the magical realm increasingly emulates the real world.

In inflating Sendak’s slim text into a feature-length film, Jonze and Eggers also expand Max’s personal journey so that, by its completion, he’s capable of returning home with a greater capacity for acceptance and understanding. While he’s initially enamoured with destructive Wild Thing Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini), he ultimately comes to see the meek, oft-ignored Alexander (Paul Dano) as his true kindred spirit. Once he’s assumed a parental role with the creatures, Max also learns to appreciate the fallibility of authority figures, making his eventual reconciliation with his mother all the more moving.

While Jonze’s film sometimes struggles to sustain both its pace (the narrative stretch marks are evident) and tonal footing (some kids will find the Wild Things far too menacing), it nevertheless emerges as a most impressive accomplishment. The filmmaker has managed to honour a beloved classic while at the same time imbuing it with his own sensibilities and perspective. Wild Things offers both a heady celebration of and thoughtful reflection on the wonders of childhood. — Curtis Woloschuk