Last Saturday, I took the boys to see "Where The Wild Things Are". The movie based on the children's book. After my wife read multiple reviews and comments about how bad and how kids shouldn't see this movie, we still went ahead with our plans. The book, by Maurice Sendak, is for relatively young kids, and is really a very short story. The charm of it mostly being the illustration and the imagination in invokes. So I wondered how Spike Jonze was going to turn a this book, which can be read in about 5 minutes into a feature length film.My first complaint to the folks that said this movie is too scary for kids, I'm just not sure what movie you were watching. I didn't find any suspense in this movie. There's some yelling and arguing that goes on between characters, but nothing I would consider frightful. Even though the monsters are imaginary, they represent real life in that people are fallible. Folks don't get along easily in life. Humans (and monsters) are dysfunctional. That's truly the beauty of this movie. Max has a hard life, lonely and afraid, things don't work the way he wants them too. He's on the outside. Some of the same things that lots of kids face. The movie portrays very well what kids go through in life and helps the viewer to really step into the story. When Max fights with his mom, and runs away (replacing being sent to his room, in the book) It's real life. It's not some fluffy interaction that might happen on the Brady Bunch. This may be considered something kids shouldn't see, but I beg to differ. In the context of the whole movie, this is exactly what they need to see. To be able to see that parents stink sometimes, families will let them down occasionally, people, in general, are broken and suffering too. When Max runs away, and comes upon the monsters he hopes that he has found his ideal place. It turns out that everywhere he goes, no matter in real life or his imagination, people are the same. Yes, this is a sad commentary on human existence, but in the end, he decides if life is like this everywhere, then he should go back to the people that truly, and realistically love him, his mother and sister. People who he can also love back in the same way. Realizing how important they are in his life, even if they let him down sometimes.
I am so glad this movie doesn't sugarcoat real life. Did my boys get the full meaning of the theme? I'm not sure. Do I think they at least got pieces of truth through it? Definitely. I believe it was very worthwhile to bring them. And I thought the movie was brilliant.
