Cast: Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper, Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker
Maurice Sendak’s 1965 children’s classic ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ is one of those primal, infallible texts that hints, harmlessly, at the Dionysian chaos and fury that lurk beneath the surface of our manicured lives. And who better to bring this warped and wonderful story to the big screen than the ‘realiseur’ of Charlie Kaufman’s rambling scripts, the possessor of a juvenile, ‘Jackass’ sense of fun, and the inventor of a raw and powerful aesthetic that defined a generation of skateboarding, Sonic Youth fans… Spike Jonze.
Jonze draws us into Max’s childish world with an incredibly intimate and volatile opening section, before Max escapes to his fantasy realm, which is all natural light and awkward camera framing. Max Records – a changeable, quiet, but passionate boy – is nothing like the two-dimensional rascal of Sendak’s book. He possesses a boundless love for his mother and sister, but if they fail to pay him enough attention he exhibits ferocious jealousy. Jonze explores these childhood quirks in a simple, affectionate, and ruthlessly honest way.
Once we enter the fantasy world, Jonze substitutes the dark, menacing visual imagery of Sendak’s book for more vibrant palettes and dusky settings. Allowing nature to take its course during filming, Jonze spared little thought for temporal consistency, choosing instead to just shoot whenever he felt like it. The result is a story world that seems to exist in some endless sunset, where the wild things sleep in daylight and stay up all night by the fire.
The forest locations were chosen specifically because they were burnt out and presented the art department with a clean slate. But for all the bewitching beauty of the colourful flowers and misplaced snow, there is still a barrenness to the settings that mimics the emptiness at the heart of the Wild Things. All they want is for Max to keep the sadness away.
The Wild Things of the book – all spiny fur, sharp teeth, and primordial ‘group think’ – are now cuddly, soft-furred creatures from the Jim Henson workshop. They are wonderfully well-rounded individuals with pride and fear and dependency issues. While CGI has been used on their faces, Jonze was adamant that the creatures should be real puppets because he wanted to see the sand trapped in their soft fur, and sense their ‘weight’.
James Gandolfini and Lauren Ambrose are the star attractions in this band of creatures. Gandolfini’s animalistic pride made Tony Soprano one of the best-loved characters in television history. He was a cuddly killer – a cheerful, doting, cold-blooded gangster – and Carol isn’t so very different. He is the wild thing that welcomes Max into the group, but his pride makes him a sensitive, volatile, and dangerous creature. Lauren Ambrose’s sulking, passionate teenager was an achingly engaging and beautiful character in Six Feet Under; and she brings the same bittersweet melancholy to KW.
Their relationship is the most wonderful thing about this film. Unable to comprehend the more ‘adult’ factors that complicate relationships, Max creates petty arguments between them… such as “you trod on the ‘head’ part of my head” and “this is why I don’t like playing with you any more”. However seemingly complicated adult relationships become, they rarely involve anything more complex than these childish impulses towards guilt and jealousy. Carol and KW are two adults engaged in a relationship that exposes how childish they really are, and that is something I am sure most adults could relate to.
Maurice Sendak’s 1965 children’s classic ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ is one of those primal, infallible texts that hints, harmlessly, at the Dionysian chaos and fury that lurk beneath the surface of our manicured lives. And who better to bring this warped and wonderful story to the big screen than the ‘realiseur’ of Charlie Kaufman’s rambling scripts, the possessor of a juvenile, ‘Jackass’ sense of fun, and the inventor of a raw and powerful aesthetic that defined a generation of skateboarding, Sonic Youth fans… Spike Jonze.
Jonze draws us into Max’s childish world with an incredibly intimate and volatile opening section, before Max escapes to his fantasy realm, which is all natural light and awkward camera framing. Max Records – a changeable, quiet, but passionate boy – is nothing like the two-dimensional rascal of Sendak’s book. He possesses a boundless love for his mother and sister, but if they fail to pay him enough attention he exhibits ferocious jealousy. Jonze explores these childhood quirks in a simple, affectionate, and ruthlessly honest way.
Once we enter the fantasy world, Jonze substitutes the dark, menacing visual imagery of Sendak’s book for more vibrant palettes and dusky settings. Allowing nature to take its course during filming, Jonze spared little thought for temporal consistency, choosing instead to just shoot whenever he felt like it. The result is a story world that seems to exist in some endless sunset, where the wild things sleep in daylight and stay up all night by the fire.
The forest locations were chosen specifically because they were burnt out and presented the art department with a clean slate. But for all the bewitching beauty of the colourful flowers and misplaced snow, there is still a barrenness to the settings that mimics the emptiness at the heart of the Wild Things. All they want is for Max to keep the sadness away.
The Wild Things of the book – all spiny fur, sharp teeth, and primordial ‘group think’ – are now cuddly, soft-furred creatures from the Jim Henson workshop. They are wonderfully well-rounded individuals with pride and fear and dependency issues. While CGI has been used on their faces, Jonze was adamant that the creatures should be real puppets because he wanted to see the sand trapped in their soft fur, and sense their ‘weight’.
James Gandolfini and Lauren Ambrose are the star attractions in this band of creatures. Gandolfini’s animalistic pride made Tony Soprano one of the best-loved characters in television history. He was a cuddly killer – a cheerful, doting, cold-blooded gangster – and Carol isn’t so very different. He is the wild thing that welcomes Max into the group, but his pride makes him a sensitive, volatile, and dangerous creature. Lauren Ambrose’s sulking, passionate teenager was an achingly engaging and beautiful character in Six Feet Under; and she brings the same bittersweet melancholy to KW.
Their relationship is the most wonderful thing about this film. Unable to comprehend the more ‘adult’ factors that complicate relationships, Max creates petty arguments between them… such as “you trod on the ‘head’ part of my head” and “this is why I don’t like playing with you any more”. However seemingly complicated adult relationships become, they rarely involve anything more complex than these childish impulses towards guilt and jealousy. Carol and KW are two adults engaged in a relationship that exposes how childish they really are, and that is something I am sure most adults could relate to.
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