'Wild Things' offer a gentle adventure in gloom

The creatures in “Where the Wild Things Are” aren’t really wild at all, in the sense of party-time wild. They are, rather, conflicted by “wild” emotions. Neurotic, even.

In the past, when they sought communal organization, they ended up eating their appointed king. The present king, a 9-year-old boy who has run away from home in rebellion, knows he is threatened at the same time he is crowned. Still, he figures, it’s good to be king.

Spike Jonze has made a rarity – an intellectual movie about children. His adaptation of the classic children’s book by Maurice Sendak has taken 10 sentences and expanded it all into the odd-ball movie of the week, if not the month.

The result is more admirable for the ambition than for the results, but one wonders how it will play the second or third time we see it, after we’ve gotten over the fact that the “monsters” look like people in Muppet outfits. (Which, in fact, they are.) The puppets, or whatever they are, look only a few steps ahead of Kukla and Ollie (minus Fran) or Big Bird. Still, looks are not what count here. It just takes us a few minutes to get used to the idea.

“Where the Wild Things Are” is a good deal closer to “Lord of the Flies” than it is to “Monsters, Inc.” If you recall, that classic book, and its two movie versions, dealt with what happens when boys are isolated in a wilderness and form their own society in order to survive. What happens is that they end up just as violent, jealous and corrupt as adults – steadfastly contradicting the theory of childhood innocence.

Jonze, with the blessing of Sendak, has tried to maintain the book’s anger in the film, but he has been a bit timid about it. The movie’s Max is “wild,” maybe in the way a real child would be, rather than a juvenile delinquent rebel. At his worst, he rampages through the forest with the monsters, wrecking trees and having a dirt-clod war. A warlike nature lurks in little Max. As king, he doesn’t lead his subjects to a paradise.

Things begin with what might be interpreted as a statement on the effects of divorce upon a child. Catherine Keener plays a caring single mother who doesn’t realize her son feels rejected. Max resents her new boyfriend, played by Mark Ruffalo, not because he’s a villain, but just because he’s in the house. (Ruffalo has settled down to a fine, sustained movie career and become, in the process, one of the most famous movie actors, not stars, to ever go through high school in Virginia Beach. His directorial debut will follow later this year.)

Max throws a fit, stands on top of the kitchen table and screams “Feed me, woman!” At this point he is, perhaps, in need of a spanking, but he escapes from the house, grabs a boat and ends up on the wild things’ island.

The colors of the movie are all browns, grays and other dark tones, with no suggestion of a yellow brick road or anything bright (although there is a theme of “there’s no place like home” lurking in the background).

James Gandolfini gives voice to the one who is kind of the leader – although he’s pretty vulnerable and unsure of himself. There’s a sarcastic, female wisecracker with the voice of Catherine O’Hara and an insecure one with the voice of Forest Whitaker who proves his worth by punching holes in trees. Our favorite, of course, is the underdog named Alexander who looks something like a small goat and always feels he is ignored. He has the voice of Paul Dano.

The film is, wisely, just 90 minutes, because not much actually happens in it. We are asked, continually, to fill in our own analogies as to what represents what (the jealousy of power-seeking, the evils of war, etc.).

Children may be intrigued by the furry “things,” but they may find them a bit tame when compared to the high-tech mayhem in other films pandering to them.

As for Max Records, who was 9 years old during filming, he is suitably unappealing, which, one supposes, is what he was meant to be. At all costs, Jonze didn’t want a typical “child actor.” The cost, for better or worse, serves to keep the audience at a distance.

This film could connect with three audiences. First, children who may see Max as their hero, a kid who gets away with things and, after all, is a king among monsters. Secondly, the Baby Boomer crowd who read the book, or had it read to them, as children. They may be seeking nostalgia or just want to finally get an idea of what those “things” looked like. Third, the teen audience who know Spike Jonze as a cool movie maker who hasn’t sold out to Hollywood.

“Where the Wild Things Are” isn’t the best kid-oriented movie that also caters to intelligent adults this year. “Coraline” still holds that honor. Still “Wild Things” is one of the more ambitious and original efforts in awhile. See it for the oddity of it.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347,

mal.vincent@pilotonline.com