Editor’s Note: this film review was originally written and published back in 2010.
Spike Jonze’s adaptation of the Maurice Sendak children’s book Where The Wild Things Are happened to be one of the films I was most looking forward to in 2009. Jonze has directed some of my favorite music videos over the years, and his feature directorial debut, Being John Malkovich, earned him a legitimate reputation as a capable film director.
2009′s Where The Wild Things Are is the third feature film directed by Jonze, following Being John Malkovich in 1999 and Adaptation in 2002. Upon its release last year, Wild Things was generally praised by critics. Now that’s it on DVD, I finally got the opportunity to watch it.
What a terrible disappointment.
Yes, it’s a very pretty movie. The combination of animatronics, costumes and computer graphics created to bring Sendak’s beloved creatures to life is truly amazing. But take away the monsters and replace them with 8-year-olds, and you realize you’re watching the equivalent of two hours of elementary school make-believe time. The story, beloved in ten pages, feels bloated, aimless and unstructured at more than 100. I’ve watched my nephew and young cousins play pretend in the back yard and been just as bored.
I kept hoping the story would explore concepts of civilization-building a la Plato’s Republic or Lord Of The Flies, but nothing happened. I at least hoped for the clear message about not throwing temper tantrums the book provides, but even that barely comes across.
Thirty minutes into this film, I understood why Disney abandoned their attempt to adapt Wild Things to the big screen 25 years ago: some things are just better in small doses, and maybe this also applies to Spike Jonze.
