"Where the Wild Things Are" - in all of us no matter the age

Where the Wild Things Are is the film adaptation of the 1963 children's book of the same name by Maurice Sendak. Max (Max Records, The Brothers Bloom) is not happy with his family, and he enjoys playing make-believe. When he gets into a fight with his mother Connie (Catherine Keener, Being John Malkovich, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The Soloist), he runs away from home and finds himself among the Wild Things: Carol (voice of James Gandolfini, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3), Ira (voice of Forest Whitaker, The Shield, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai), Judith (Catherine O'Hara, Away We Go, Chicken Little, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events), Alexander (Paul Dano, Taking Woodstock, Little Miss Sunshine, The Girl Next Door), Douglas (Chris Cooper, October Sky, American Beauty, Seabiscuit), and The Bull (Michael Berry, Jr., Star Trek, Mission Impossible III, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl). The Wild Things have gotten into a fight among each other, as they are upset over the departure of K.W. (Lauren Ambrose, Six Feet Under), but Max convinces them that he is their "King". He tries to have fun with them, but it only leads to more misery, especially when K.W. returns.

So how do you turn a 10-sentence children's book into a 9o-minute movie? Like this. Each of the Wild Things represents a different personality - Carol is the most outspoken, Douglas wants attention, and so on, and so forth. I thought this was a very enjoyable film with a good message, and I feel anyone can enjoy and relate to it. The message is about how difficult (and maybe impossible) it is to make everyone happy. Despite the book being short, the film didn't take that many liberties with it - it's still basically the same story, just greatly expanded on.

The film received a PG rating, mainly for violence - of course, there's no blood, but in the beginning, Max bites his mom (we don't see it that well though). He also tries to play a game where he divides the Wild Things into "good guys" and "bad guys" and gets them to throw dirt clods (and a raccoon) at each other. K.W. steps on Carol's face, Carol goes on a huge tantrum and starts smashing things, and K.W. hides Max in her mouth (we see him on the inside of her stomach). Carol also tears off Douglas' arm (sand or dirt comes out of it, and he later replaces it with a stick). There isn't much sexual content, though Ira does... something (can't really tell) to Judith in one scene (she tells him to stop and he does). That's about it.

Well, if you like the book, or enjoyed reading it when you were little, the movie is definitely for you.