michael lambe

Where the Wild Things Are is quite a good movie to watch right after you’ve had a row with someone. Makes you feel very very silly indeed. Quite unlike Maurice Sendak’s original picture book in tone, the movie explores the mood-swings of childhood; the high points of excitement (snowball fights) , the slumps into depression (some big boy smashes your igloo) and then the tears and the rage (tearing up your sister’s bedroom). It’s a familiar pattern and one we all recognize. Becoming an adult is in part learning how to control those moodswings, and learning how to compromise with people when you can’t quite seem to get along. The boy Max becomes leader of the “wild things” and especially friendly with Carol among them. But as children (and monsters) do, soon they are squabbling over petty slights and misunderstandings. Because they are so close – they feel all the more hurt and let down when they argue and the sense of betrayal seems unforgivable. And yet, a simple gesture can suddenly make them forget their argument and remember how important they are to each other again. When the movie was over I asked Mewby what she thought about it. “I’m not a child…” she said smiling, as if to say the movie was too childish for her. But I noticed that there were no children in the audience when we went to see it. And I don’t think this movie is for children really. It’s not particularly “fun”. It is a far more realistic and sombre depiction of childhood experience than one would expect from a popular movie. But it is also a study of those feelings, those moodswings; the hurt, the loneliness, the joy and the rage that we all still have inside us even as adults – whether we choose to express them or acknowledge them or not. Spike Jonze and David Eggers wrote the screenplay for this movie together. It’s interesting what they are trying to do here. I’m not sure it works – but it is interesting.