So I tried to come up with a way to write this review without giving away too much but being the crappy writer that I am, I simply could not. So for those who wish to remain unspoiled, here is me review in a nutshell: Spike Jonze has created a pretty deep film that will undoubtedly divided audiences much like his Being John Malkovich did. The costumes were awesome, a little too much shaky cam for my taste but overall the film was enjoyable but ultimately it ended up falling short for me. I liked it a lot but I wanted to love it and it never reached that level. That cool? Aight, now let me put my smarty pants on and no doubt over analyze this from my perspective, after the jump. POSSIBLE SPOILERS!
The movie is uncomfortable. This may very well be just me projecting but still, there are moments that will make you feel like your stuck in a room with friends arguing and there’s nothing you can really do but sit there and look away. And I like that! The director provokes that kind of response from his audience and he does it well. But my concern (and I’m sure that this was the studio’s concern, as well) is that if this is a film marketed towards children, do you want to hit them with that kind of rawness when clearly this is supposed to be a kiddie movie? I know that supposedly kids these days are light years ahead in the maturity area and are able to grasp complicated concepts such as love & hate at a much early age but is this too much of a life lesson or are us adults merely products (victims?) of our slow paced generation? I’d like to think that kids are able to process this film and in turn enrich their lives but I’m wondering it it will only leave the confused more so than enlightened. But then there’s the ending which has the same ambiguity as the book had and in turn really leaves the lesson learned totally up to the viewer so don’t expect a nicely wrapped package at the end of this film. The argument can be made either way it this is good (because this is art) or bad (because a traditional story structure closure is necessary) but what has to be said is that Spike Jonze has created a film that can be, and probably will be, argued & debated about for some time to come.
Perhaps better perspective comes from parenthood but for this guy, the film just seems to give us too light of a sketch, the outlines of the story clearly visible. Either it’s a groundbreaking film or I’m just too dumb to clearly see it but there is one major problem spot for me: the characters. For the most part they never get a chance to become fully fleshed out and the moment you begin to see something positive in them, they turn around and do something that totally destroys any sliver of likability in them. Max especially comes off as bratty and we never really get a sense that he faces repercussions for any of his actions. I’m really looking forward to discussing this with parents to see what they thought of the film and how they react to the whole thing.
But right now, I’m just looking at it from a filmmakers perspective and from that, there are two arguments to be had here:
Spike Jonze has broken barriers that we never knew existed and has created a film that bridges the gap between a children’s film and an adult drama in a remarkable way.
or
Spike Jonze has created rubbish in taking a open-ended, perennial classic children’s book and made his own without concern for the legions of fans of the book.
I’m sure there’s more to it than that but I like to keep it simple. After all, we’re just a blog from Fresno, not the AFI or anything. Mad props to Spike Jonze for creating the film he wanted and sticking to it (this project has been in development for almost a decade now) and running through studio execs and all the other hurdles to get it made. Like I mentioned above, maybe I came in with too high expectations, maybe I’m over thinking this film but I couldn’t help to come out of the theater thinking I just sat through a thinly veiled Spike Jonze biography rather than adventure/fantasy flick. Production design was amazing, the Wild Things look amazing and the photography looked spectacular. But I still came out with a some “meh” filling my insides. I recommend everyone check it out and see what you think and please come swing by here and let us know what your interpretation of the film was. At this point, only time will tell if this becomes as classic as the book that inspired it.
Max is an asshole.
It sucked. My kid thought it sucked too. Carol has anger issues. I wanted to like him, but I just couldn’t bring myself to like the big jerk. All the characters wear mean and not likeable at all. And just like in the book…I could never understand what they had to do with Max being such a brat. My kid wanted to leave about a quarter of the way through, but we stayed because I kept hoping the movie would redeem itself in some way. It never did.