Saturday, May 29, 2010

Where the Wild Things Are

directed by Spike Jonze

So, I watched "Where the Wild Things Are" last night. I must not have read the book when I was little, because the movie was not familiar to me at all, aside from it looking similar to some pictures from the book I think I remember. I found the movie to be very discomforting in a lot of ways. For one thing, my heart broke when the older kids broke Max's igloo and he started to cry. It brought back memories of being bullied by my older brother and occasionally his friends, and my emotional reactions being totally ignored or misunderstood. That was unexpected. But also, I didn't really like Max because he's a crazy misbehaved kid (sorry to be glib; but I don't consider myself to be very 'child friendly'). I don't want to be his friend. Also, the monsters are like a bunch of disgruntled, uncontrollable teenagers I don't want to be around either. You know what the problem was? I found myself wanting to step in and be the mom for these unrulies and explain to them that not everyone gets along all the time and sometimes life is hard, etc. etc. Plus, games like "war" and hitting each other in the head with dirt clods doesn't appeal to me. I was not a very rough and tumble kid, so the whole movie makes me a little uncomfortable. Is that weird? The movie left me feeling sad and unresolved, which was not at all what I was expecting or how I wanted to feel after watching a movie adaptation of a children's book. Entirely unsatisfying and I wish I hadn't seen the movie, to be honest.

I needed to watch another episode of QI afterwards to feel better.

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