Where the Wild Things Are – Review

“Where the Wild Things Are” is the story of Max, a young insecure boy who cannot understand or control his wild emotions. He is impulsive, and when he feels neglected by his sister he dumps snow in her room; when he feels jealous of his mother’s boyfriend he gets into a fight with her and bites her. After this fight, he runs away into the dangerous land of the wild things, where he hopes to find a place free from the loneliness and anger he felt at home. Upon first encountering the creatures, Max has to tell them he has special powers to keep them from eating him. They quickly proclaim him their king, and the moment of hostility is forgotten amid their wild rumpus. Once the initial fun wears off, however, the wild things reveal their true natures. They are argumentative and passive-aggressive: they whine, yell, manipulate, break things, and hurt each other for no reason. In many ways, the different wild things embody aspects of the people and emotions Max tried to leave behind. KW, who constantly brags about her cool new friends, represents Max’s mother and sister, whom Max feels abandon him whenever they spend time with their friends or boyfriend instead of him. Carol, who is always destroying things, represents Max’s insecurity and feelings of abandonment as well as the aggression he uses to mask it. By the time he returns home he is completely disillusioned of any notions he had of a fairy-tale ending. Even in his fantasies, Max cannot escape the fact that no place is free from bad feelings, and no person has the power to make everything okay. As much as he wants to, Max cannot control the wild things any more than he can control his own feelings.

This may seem to be a rather harsh moral for a children’s movie, but the grave precocity of this story is refreshing when compared to the usual infantile happy endings of many “grown-up” action movies and comedies. The movie’s honest assessment of human relationships does not pull any punches: the constant fear for Max’s well-being and the unpredictability of the wild things leaves the moviegoer emotionally drained. Even if it is perhaps not the most enjoyable movie, it is an enthralling work of art and well worth seeing because of, not despite, the sadness felt at its conclusion.

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