If you want a message, I think it was "There are no easy answers to people's problems, and no way to solve every problem, but those problems don't have to be all-consuming either." Max couldn't make everything okay for the Wild Things, but they still loved him in the end, and the same thing with him and his mom, although no solution was provided to either group's problems.
Also, I have to say, emotional honesty is much better than tacking a happy ending where it doesn't fit. Then the audience just loses the ability to identify with the movie, which can be a big help on it's own.
This is exactly how I felt. And I don't see why Jonze would want or need to add such an ending/moral of "life's just sad" when the original book was about a kid learning to let go of his anger. It's a movie I can enjoy half of, the first half.
Leave a Comment:
Wild Young Hearts, or Growing Up Sucks: The Movie
When I first saw the trailer for Where The Wild Things Are, I absolutely knew this was a movie I needed to see. Wild Things was a childhood favorite, and at the time I really could have used a reminder of simpler days and the escapism of a boy running around with giant monsters for 2 hours.
I got maybe half an hour of that, and an hour and a half of sadness and heartbreak.
I seriously wanted to love this movie. I can love parts of it: The Wild Rumpus, the Wild Thing puppet-suits, Karen O's soundtrack, and Max Records, who just flat out owned this movie. The darker elements and Nightmare Fuel didn't bother me (in fact I was kinda looking forward to it). But I can definitely say that this was the saddest movie I've seen in a while, and while I appreciate its emotional honesty, no matter how I look at it, I hava a hard time finding a message other than "Sometimes life just sucks, people hurt each other, there's nothing you can do about it, and any attempt to improve your situation will make things worse." Wow, nice message for the kids there, Spike!
Maybe an Esoteric Happy Ending can be pulled out of it, or maybe future viewings will reveal Hidden Depths. All I can say is that while I can't hate it, it sure didn't turn out to be the movie I wanted, or needed, to see at the time.