Where the Wild Things Are
By Marshall Fine
Rating:
Who's in it: Catherine Keener, the voices of James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Forest Whitaker
What it's about: After a fight with his mother (Keener), a boy named Max (Max Records) runs away to become king of an island full of furry monsters.
Big friends: Director Spike Jonze ("Adaptation"), is the perfect choice for this imaginative film taken from Maurice Sendak's classic children's book. Jonze keeps things as simple as the original: just a kid meeting and playing with new friends, who understand him in a way his mother can't. They play together with the kind of freedom only 10-year-olds have. The monsters have the same childlike mentality as Max; they can be goofy, rowdy, jealous, insecure. The look, movements and facial expressions of the monsters all work - and so do the voices, particularly Gandolfini and Catherine O'Hara. And Records gives a wonderfully natural performance as Max, king of the wild things.
Long story short: These "Wild Things" will make your heart sing.
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