I saw “Where the Wild Things Are” tonight with Christine.
First off, let me say that I’ve been waiting for this movie for a long time. Ever since I saw the poster some 10 months ago, I knew that I was going to see this movie. I was getting so pumped about it that I started getting scared that I was hyping myself up for it too much. Boy, was I wrong on that one.
The heart of this story, like Maurice Sendak’s original picture book, is all about the feelings of an angry, wild kid who just wants to be loved. These feelings scare him, and he recoils once he sees them come out of him. While the book is (obviously) more subdued and subtle, the movie fleshes these childhood realities out in a fantastic way.
While I can’t talk for anyone else, I saw myself in Max. I remember those childhood emotions of fear, anger, and loneliness. I was still dealing with these memories when I decided to face down my own monsters in counselling years later. It’s hard being a kid who feels like an outcast. Luckily, like Max, I did (and do) have family who loved me very much.
Go see this movie. I don’t often try to feed the machine like this, but this is culture-making at its finest. This movie doesn’t talk down to kids, it talks to them face to face and let’s them know about the consequences of your actions, as well as the redemptive power of hope and love.
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This entry was written by , posted on October 25, 2009 at 11:02 pm, filed under Culture, Life, Uncategorized and tagged childhood, movies. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.