dreamy and lucid, lovely and sad — 2 years ago
Following a small boy, Max, around a world fabricated by his busy mind could prove fatal for a lot of directors, but I gathered Spike Jonze could pull it off. In my mind, he has. Mind you, I’ve never read the books by Maurice Sendak, who wrote and illustrated “Where The Wild Things Are”, published in 1963, which might be a good thing. Dave Eggers, pop-writer extraordinaire, has adapted the story for this film and has in my mind done a great job. I think the focus of the film lay in feelings rather than through special effects; as Max runs away from home and discovers a new world with strange beings in it, he takes – and is forced to – consequences from his actions. His world is that of a child’s and I think the film-makers have done a terrific job in creating what I think a production-company that works from readymade solutions, e.g. Disney, would have debased completely; Max is alive, and to say the least, so are his inner worlds. I felt that a shimmer of sadness was cast over the film throughout the entire run, in a very good way. For cons, I’ll say the film slumped a little in tempo during certain movements, but then again, don’t our worlds regularly do just that? The cinematography was tight and dreamy, the colours reminded me of Aronovsky and the music was lovely.
