November 13, 2009
Review: "Where The Wild Things Are"
Excerpted from an e-mail from my daughter Elizabeth, who is a credit to her parents...
The girls and I saw "Where the Wild Things Are" on Veteran's day (though I pleaded to go see "The Men Who Stare at Goats," which looks hilarious! And has Ewan McGregor, and he's definitely in my top-five of people, were I an actress, I would want to work with). WTWTA wasn't really worth it. The girls were okay with it, but I thought it was almost nihilistic and hopeless. It seemed to glorify all the things that were bad about being a child, and didn't resolve anything at all. I'm moderately peeved to say the least. It definitely could have been better.Posted by John Weidner at November 13, 2009 11:50 AM
And now instead of being a beloved children's book, it is something the hipster-indie-chic kids are looking at as the next bible. They think it's the coolest thing, and they won't really see that they need to grow up (these are the kids who wear American Apparel, and buy shoes that light up, like the ones I had when I was a kid, because now, instead of wearing them to be cool, they're wearing them for the irony of them being not cool. It's really deep, you should try it).
I forgot to mention that WTWTA didn't even provide audiences with a story about growing up. Max, the protagonist, went through all the motions of realizing that he was hanging out with immature floozies of Beasts (who, granted, were really cool visually, but lacking in character), and realizing he was being immature. Instead of trying to solve this dilemma though, he decidedly makes no changes to his behavior to rectify his discovery. He did not grow up, he merely existed. Most depressing.
Also, because of this, I cannot wear my WTWTA sweatshirt (which I got years before this movie came out) without being Indie-Chic. I feel the insatiable, and irrational urge to flip a table at the intricate cruelties of this world.
Posted by: B. Weidner at November 13, 2009 12:30 PMYou could tape a banner on your sweatshirt that says something like, "Read the book. Skip the movie."
Posted by: John Weidner at November 13, 2009 12:46 PMThat's sad, because the book makes a big deal of Max finally deciding to go back to grow up and have a real family. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that Hollywood finds stories that are popular because of a message in them, then immediately strips out that part.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at November 13, 2009 01:10 PMB. - personally, I prefer throwing chairs. They don't weigh as much and you can aim them much more accurately. ;)
Maybe we should make new t-shirts for things like this. "Book, good, movie...don't bother."
Posted by: Kathy K at November 13, 2009 03:48 PMKathy; Your chair comment has been duly noted in the logs!
And I'm intrigued by the idea of pro-book WTWTA paraphernalia. Scrumptious!
Posted by: B. Weidner at November 13, 2009 11:33 PM
