Film.com's FREE movie of the week is "Love the Hard Way." Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and Charlotte Ayanna star in this drama about a thief who falls for a curious, beautiful young woman. As their intimacy grows, a slick cop (Pam Greer) is closing in.
'Where the Wild Things Are' -
Warner Bros. Pictures
Max, a rambunctious and sensitive boy feels misunderstood at home and escapes to where the Wild Things are. He lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions. The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. Max soon finds, though, that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships there prove to be more complicated than he originally thought.
It seems like a no-brainer. Where the Wild Things Are is based on a beloved children's book about a rambunctious boy's overactive imagination. It has oversized creatures made with Muppet technology. It was directed by a man who
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is one of the most beloved children's books of all time, not to mention one that many felt was unadaptable to the big screen. Warner Bros. disagreed, and hired Spike Jonze, notorious in
"It's individual moments and scenes that make it worth seeing."
First of all, Where the Wild Things Are is not a kids movie. Its content is not inappropriate -- no more so than plenty of animated films -- but its style, tone, and structure would bewilder young children, if not bore them outright. It's a movie a
PETER TRAVERS -
October 15, 2009
Forget every sugary kid-stuff cliché Hollywood shoves at you. The
defiantly untamed Where the Wild Things Are is a raw and exuberant
mind-meld between Maurice Sendak, 81, the Caldecott Medal winner who wrote
and illustrated the classic 1963 book, and Spike Jonze, 39, the
Oscar-nominated director (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) who honors the
explosive feelings of childhood by creating a visual and emotional tour de
force. The movie barrels out at you