The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

While I was off in the beautiful land of Arkansas, I had to have something to do! So I went to see a movie, that being Where the Wild Things Are, mostly because Fantastic Mr. Fox wasn’t showing yet and, on retrospect, I had heard lame things about Men Who Stare at Goats, and good things about this one, so I went for it. (Okay, that’s kind of a run-on sentence. Whee.)

Originally, I was kind of down on the film, based on the previews. It just looked like more CG crap to ruin a classic children’s story. But at some point, Essner pointed out that the movie was directed by Spike Jonze, which quickly made me interested. He’s the director of some of my favorite films, such as Being John Malkovitch and Adaptation. (And, apparently, writer on the Jackass movies, or so his IMDB page says, which kind of blows my mind.) Him being involved made it have potential. So I went to see it.

It was pretty good, but I left feeling like I missed something. The various monsters on the island that Max goes to obviously have connections to his real life that we get a glimpse of. Seeing as some of them share voice actors, it’s pretty completely clear that a connection is being made. However, perhaps because I was at an English conference, I was trying to put on my English Major hat and figure out the connections, and I didn’t quite pull it off during the first viewing. Some are clear. Carol is obviously a near-copy of Max’s social frustration and anger, for example, and the little goat dude is how Max feels ignored. I just didn’t get everything. I’m sure I would on another viewing. Still, it was nice to see a movie that had that kind of plan in place. It was obvious that the movie was written for adults who grew up with the book as kids. That was the focus. There were children in the audience enjoying it too, but that was really what as being pushed, it seemed.

I feel like I have to mention the child actor for Max. He does a good job, but damn, he’s creepy. There’s something about the expressions he has that is unsettling. It’s like he’s acting younger than he really is. I think that’s a deliberate choice on the part of the filmmakers, though. He’s supposed to be holding on to this playful, childish childhood while his life gets more serious, and he runs away into his imagination. It’s not hard to figure out why Max would feel out of place, and why other people would have a hard time interacting with him. It’s just kind of odd that you feel very little sympathy for him, or at least I didn’t. I bet children would, but I was often going, “You stupid kid, you’re going to get yourself killed!” Maybe I’ve got too much parental instinct wanting to get out.

In any case, the visuals did come together in a significant way, and the story is something worthy of looking at and attempting to break down. This is completely a movie for adults, and I did really like it. I’ll have to watch it again when it hits DVD sometime to fully grok it, though.