New review: Where the Wild Things Are
Directed by Spike Jonze; screenplay by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, from the book by Maurice Sendak
Changes and shifts are inevitable in adaptation. In turning a iconic storybook consisting of pages of fantastical images and only ten simple sentences, it’s inescapable. Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are is surely the best anyone could hope for in a feature-length tribute to the Maurice Sendak picture book, expanded and reimagined in the spirit of the feelings that drives that story.
Let the wild rumpus begin!
Sendak’s original Where the Wild Things Are is not just a classic, it’s a masterful evocation of the energy and creativity and frustration and emotional hyperactivity that kids express in acting up and acting out. Jonze and his screenwriting partner, Dave Eggers, preserve the imagination and the primal emotions of Sendak while grounding his preadolescent hero is a palpably real world where his older sister is more interested in teenage buddies and his single mom (Catherine Keener), however attentive and responsive to his imaginative world, is too often busy and is even dating, creating a whole new dimension of anxieties for Max.
