Review – Where the Wild Things Are

The quicker you abandon any notion that this is going to be like the book, the more likely you are to be able to enjoy it. Director Spike Jonze completely lacks Maurice Sendak’s sense of simple fun, but he adds some art house elements that succeed in an indie-movie-for-grownups way. Max’s monster friends are archetypal neurotics melded into one big dysfunctional playgroup. I would have liked a little less “hey, that reminds me of someone I know” and a little more “hey, this is an entertaining movie,” but it does a reasonably good job being what it’s designed to be. Mildly amusing