Don't Go. I'll Eat You Up I love You So
I went to see Where the Wild Things Are after my exam* today.
It made me cry. Was that the idea?
It was... much more of a Spike Jonze film than I was really expecting. Brilliant and sort of psychologically deep, but also a bit off putting, in a way. Not nearly to the extent of or in the same sense as Being John Malkovitch or Adaptation - the later of which I don't really care for and the former I think of as seriously clever but hard to really like - but it's a bit... raw, I suppose, a bit too negative and familiar and difficult. Certainly more so than you get with most movies, and especially most kid's movies.
I don't mean that in a bad way at all, though. It really is a gorgeous movie. It was beautiful to look at, Max Records is amazing as Max, and I loved what he did with the music and how rough and tumble and scary but still lovely the wild things were, and I think I loved the film itself, too, but it did shake me up a bit. Probably didn't help that I was amazingly tired and drained after a very stressful few days, of course. But more than that, I think it affected me so because it captured some of the sadness of childhood just so perfectly.
Because when you're little, you just want everyone to be together and to be happy and have fun, and you want to be included and loved and paid attention to. And when you don't get that, or things change, or people grow up and drift away before you're ready for them to, it just seems so unfair, and so confusing and lonely, you don't know what to do or how to fix it. It can be really tough being a kid and so helpless, even in the most stable and loving of families. And I think it's not necessarily an unusual thing that those sort of childish wants or feelings might pop up again from time to time as people get older. They are very selfish sorts of things to want for, in a way, but very basic, simple things too.
That the Wild Things are Jim Henson creatures instead of CGI only reinforces all of this: a lot of the target audience grew up with puppets and hand-drawn animation, so for us, there's something inherently nostalgic about them being used now. And of course, once you've spent a childhood believeing in monsters and magic, seeing them come alive and running around is pretty freaking wonderful and a bit of an odd relief.
The film just aches for childhood. You can feel it in the very fabric of the thing. Watching it, there's a real sadness in how it reminds you that all childhoods must end, and that is made all the more apparent by the authenticity of Max and the wild things's childishness. The wild things are such sad creatures so missing a time past, when things were better and simpler. And though they still act like children in many ways, those times are gone and no matter how hard they try they can't get them back. Max isn't there yet, at the age when you've gotten too old and things are so hard to make be simple and magical, and so for him the trouble comes from the fact that the people around him are.
It's not much a film about growing up, as so many kids movies are, but about other people growing up. About coping with and dealing with and feeling about things in the grown up world in very un-grown up ways. The movie operates on kid's terms. It's not the Peter Pan kind of don't want to grow up, run away to a fantasy land, have adventures, learn lessons, find out the importance and value in responsibility, and then come back ready to grow up narrative. Max does learn his lesson in empathy by the end, but he's still a little kid. There's not so much a moral or a clear cut ending, so much as the film ending by saying, Hey, it's hard for everyone, this family deal. Everyone wants different things, but you all love each other and want to be together. Sometimes that doesn't happen as smoothly as it sounds like it should. I know, it sucks, right? But try to understand the others. Love them anyway and take them as best as you can get them.
I don't know that the film set out to be so emotionally affecting as to make people cry, as it did little old overly emotional, looks-to-closely-at-things me,** but it is certainly a beautiful film, with a level of honesty to it that is startling.
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*Thank god it's over, I seriously nearly killed myself studying for the damn thing. If I don't pass this course I may actually die, or just throw away the facade of dignity and email my lecturer in tears and beg.
In related news, if anyone has any burning questions about abnormal psychology - including diagnostic criteria, specific disorders, and treatments - now is the time to ask me. Because chances are this info ain't staying around in my head much longer.
**Tips for people wanting to watch the movie and not wanting be shaken up by it:
- Don't be tired and thoroughly intellectually drained
- Don't have just done something really stressful and be looking for a fun bit of light relief
- Don't still be emotionally fragile from the loss of a loved one
- Don't be a massive sook