Where the Wild Things Are Review; Spoilers
Journal Entry:
Fri Nov 13, 2009, 7:49 PM
So... Where the Wild Things Are. I remember the book as a child. A simple picture book, with few words, describing a child's imagination. Not much to go off of in a movie, so I was a bit apprehensive. My mother read to be constantly as a child. Moomins, Winnie the Pooh, Paddington Bear, and the assorted child's stories that were very short, like Where the Wild Things are. I was so afraid of them ruining this movie, so much that I waited a whole month to finally grab the chance to go see it.
The beginning of the film I was very intrigued. The entire layout of the film is something like an Indie film, but with a Blockbuster budget. You may think that... that really isn't possible, but in this that's the first thing that I thought.
The beginning of the movie made me cry. Quite a lot of things happened to me in my childhood, and it hit me far too hard. I felt tight in my chest the first moment, when Max breaks his sister's trinket her mother made for her, realizing that I too had lived through that, or rather what I found that to be a metaphor of. When Max bites his mother and she screams at him, I began to cry. Small tears at first, nothing too bad. A tug at the heart strings. As he runs away from his home I began to think, "that little boy is me." Everything about my childhood... building forts, having my stuffed animals as my best friends, even the line, "mom! I rebuilt the fort! Come quick before the lava comes! ..... Want me to save you a seat?" Got to me. My mother was and is everything I've ever looked up to. A long while after the certain traumas in my childhood, when my mother began dating again (and good for her) I too felt the same as Max.
When he runs into the woods and comes across the boat, I had stopped crying at this point, but again my heart strings were tugged. Alone in the open ocean was what I felt quite often as a child. Alone with nothing but myself to amuse me. When he wrote "MAX" on the boat I bit my lip. Drawing has constantly been an outlet of my feelings and this somehow reminded me of it. Max facing the storm as he approaches the island made me tear up again but I managed not to cry. I wanted to enjoy it, but the storm he faced reminded me of the childhood as well.
When he approaches the fire and sees Carol smashing the homes and joins in, it was the first bit of true elation from the movie. Real elation that made me want to cry and smile at the same time. Like Max, Carol could have been a representation of myself as well. Not to mention the fact that every single character design in that story is completely amazing. I loved seeing them all for the first time, animated like I could never have imagined. When the humor begins with Judith I started to smile more, and saw the childish imagination Max put forth to convince them not to eat him really got to me, in a good way this time. Imagination was the one thing I had always relied on to escape the reality of my childhood and nothing more than that. I could completely and utterly relate to Max throughout theentire film.
The happy parts of the film were so amazing. The "wild rumpus" was completely magical to me as I completely remembered loving that part in the book. Them designing the fortress was so adorable, as well as them making it. "That's a wonderful post there Douglas!" "Well you know, it's just... how I always make posts." The pure innocence of the movie was just... uplifting.
When Carol shows him his mini world (quite like Max's globe at the beginning of the film) was so.... I would do that constantly as a child. Through drawing, with my stuffed animals, with my fortresses. The magical moment where Carol puts the water through and Max watches from in the middle of the river made me... I smiled so brightly. It was beautiful. I keep using the word "magical" but that's the only way I can explain it at all. It was nothing but pure, innocent magic.
Then things begin to go downward. Max tries to bring the Wild Things together by having KW bring her friends Bob and Terry and everyone seems happy by Carol. He and Max's conversation, "I couldn't even really understand what they were saying, just squeaks." "You know... I couldn't really understand either." Was pure and wonderful truth. They weren't pretending like the others. They were completely honest at this point, even if it doesn't quite turn out the way a child's mind should have. At the beginning of the film when Max tells his mother about the vampires and buildings we realize he isn't one for happily ever after, but one who understands that perhaps there are no happy endings, and his imagination reflects this.
The turning point in the film for me was when KW offers to hide Max in her own belly, and argues with Carol when he can't find him. "You're going to eat him." "No I was... I just said that." His temper reflects my own. After Carol leaves and KW says a few words, Max just gentle says, "he loves you." Once he's out of KW's stomach, he tells her, "I wish you had a mother," and that's when I lost it again. I began to cry once more. The bitter sweetness of it all, when Max decides to leave is both heart breaking and wonderful at the same moment. He's realized things about himself and the world, that anger will bring nothing but anger. Carol is still angry and does not realize this either until he finds a message Max has left him in his ruined cave.
I had been crying, but I really truly sobbed when Max is sailing away and Carol approaches but is too late. He begins howling in sorrow to his friend and Max answers back softly. Soon all the Wild Things are joining in and the entire scene sends a chill through you. When Max reaches his home, there are no more lines. There doesn't need to be. The forgiving, worried heart of a mother and the penitent son that realizes he was wrong. The mother falls asleep and Max smiles, eating his cake, and the screen goes black with nothing but "Where the Wild Things Are" scrawled across it in childish hand writing.
This movie meant more than... anything to me. To see it with my mother. To bawl in the car. To come home and play Uncle Wriggly's and Candy Land. This movie was perhaps the best form of therapy I've ever had, and the world seems brighter.
- Mood:
Approval
Euphoric
Love
