Where the Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak used a mere ten sentences to tell the story of his landmark children's book Where the Wild Things Are, about a young boy named Max who travels to an imaginary land where gigantic beasts crown him king and teach him a few life lessons. Now, forty-six years after Sendak's book was first published, Spike Jonze uses just over one hundred minutes of celluloid to transform the story into a dazzling cinematic masterpiece. As a fan of Sendak's book since I was a child (like countless others), I am in complete awe of Jonze's creation. His movie manages to pay loving tribute to the book, while simultaneously carving out a spectacularly original identity for itself.

Jonze's vision is so singularly focused that his Where the Wild Things Are doesn't look or feel like any of its family-friendly relatives. It's gritty, moody, and wild, much like Max himself. The title at the movie's beginning is presented in a child-like scrawl, the words invading the corners of the frame, and the moments that follow are born from a place of youthful rebellion. The camera shakes and scurries as it excitedly introduces us to Max in his regular habitat. Chasing the family dog and then meticulously crafting a Max-sized igloo in his front yard, this young boy compellingly communicates everything we need to know about his complex self.

Max is imaginative, happy, sad, lonely, angry, brave, scared. He is a tower of emotional contradictions and yet every aspect of his personality is believable, relatable, and engaging. The instant success of the character is largely due to the astonishing depth of Max Records' brilliant performance. With only a few lines of dialogue and a nuanced collection of evocative facial expressions, Records makes Max burst from the pages of the book and come to life, both physically and emotionally, on the big screen.

Fully embracing the complexities that make his character so interesting, Records gives each moment a personal touch that enhances Max's journey every step of the way. Even though Max could be viewed as a bit of a brat (an angry outburst in one of his first scenes results in the destruction of some of his sister's possessions), Records navigates the emotional highs and lows with such precision that Max's every action, good or bad, feels honest and authentic.

This is especially important when Max lashes out at his mother (played by the great Catherine Keener) on the fateful night when his fantastical adventure begins. Seeing his single mother laughing with another man in their living room sends Max over the edge and his only response is to become positively wild. His mother attempts to restrain him, but he escapes, running out of the house, down the street, and into a wooded area, where he finds a boat that will take him to the imaginative land of the Wild Things.

Max's harsh reaction to the situation is another temper tantrum from a boy who is making a habit of such outbursts, but where a lesser actor would simply perform the scripted actions to fulfill the necessity of the inciting incident, Records bottles up so much painful rage for the crucial scene that I ended up sympathizing with Max. His reaction may be uncalled for, but it's the reaction of a boy who doesn't know where to turn and what to do with the anger boiling up inside of him. This big moment in the movie is potentially alienating, but Records makes it work with his raw and visceral approach.

Like Sendak's book, Jonze's movie is intriguing even before the titular beasties show up. But when they finally rear their gigantic heads, the dramatic reach of the story grows in leaps and bounds. Max arrives in the strange land of the Wild Things and eventually partakes in the monster equivalent of group therapy. Now that the narrative has been elongated to fit a feature-length movie, each of the Wild Things are given a name and each of them represent an aspect of Max's life or personality. Upon his arrival, he befriends the creatures and is quickly crowned king of the whole land.

At first, Max's time with the Wild Things is basically one big party. They play games, build a massive fort, and genuinely enjoy each other's company. But before long, things begin to change and it is in the sad, scary, and loving moments with the Wild Things that Max truly begins to understand both his personal issues and the importance of family. Records continues to impress throughout Max's entire journey, as he continually locates a powerful spectrum of emotions to add dramatic depth to the narrative. But once the story introduces us to the Wild Things, Records is able to share the screen with a collection of gorgeously realized larger-than-life oddities.

The Wild Things themselves, wonderfully voiced by a great group of actors, including James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara, Lauren Ambrose, and Forest Whitaker, have been developed for the big screen by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Instead of choosing CGI to handle the entire physical creation of the beasties, Jonze opted for oversized puppets with mild amounts of CGI filling in certain facial movements. The creative decision works wonders in the movie's finished version, with the Wild Things actually occupying the same physical space as Max. When the group of creatures interact with the human boy, it is so completely convincing on a visual level that it resonates on an emotional scale as well.

Jonze has also chosen to shoot the scenes that take place in the land of the Wild Things on location, instead of on a heavily manipulated set. This means that Max and the Wild Things run through real forests, traverse real deserts, and stare out across real seas. The land of the Wild Things is connected to Max's actual reality, but the presence of the creatures and the spirit of the place make it feel fantastic and otherworldly. Jonze could have easily gone with a series of sets that matched the illustrative style in Sendak's book, but he has taken the visuals in a far more exciting direction by lending Max's imagined world an earthy quality that is both recognizable and uniquely original.

Letting his imagination soar from page to screen, Spike Jonze has crafted a magnificent ode to the joys and frustrations of the childhood experience. He completely captures the magic of Sendak's book, while expanding upon Max's emotional journey with stunningly cinematic execution. The script, written by Jonze and Dave Eggers, flows beautifully from beginning to end. The dialogue invented for the Wild Things is funny, inspired, and wonderfully surprising. Adding to the movie's power is the sweetly moving music provided by Karen O. and Carter Burwell. The movie dances along to their exquisite sounds with childlike energy. But at the centre of it all is Max Records, whose performance is arguably my favourite aspect of the entire movie. He is touching, inviting, exciting. He is incredible. He is, above all else, a Wild Thing.