Director: Spike Jonze
Starring: Max Powers, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Forrest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara
Review: 2.5 stars (of five)
The beloved children’s picture-book is a slight, charmingly drawn tale of a mildly misbehaving boy letting his imagination run wild. Director/cowriter Spike Jonze has extrapolated it into a full-length picture that takes apart the psyche of a troubled boy and fails to put it back together.
The slick, visually impressive film has an excellent human cast (young actor Max Powers delivers a great performance that by necessity carries the film), solid voice actors and creature designs, and a great overall look, it fails to add up in a remotely satisfying way.
Max is lonely, apparently friendless, adrift in a world of imagination. His teenage sister has no time for him, and his well-meaning single mother (the always skillful Catherine Keener) is stressed out by work and is trying to assemble some kind of love life with a new guy (the surprisingly chubby Mark Ruffalo). Early on we see that Max has a lot of energy, but is also emotionally fragile and underskilled in anger management. Not a bad kid, but troubled. When Max throws a fairly appalling tantrum, he runs out of the house and transports himself, by long sea voyage, to a far, forested shore inhabited by monsters all suffering one form of emotional problem or another.
As the monsters mope, whine and “act out” (as today’s young parents say), it becomes clear that they reflect Max’s unchecked fears and flaws. The creatures explicitly look to Max to save them, to solve their dysfunction, and we know that in doing so, he will solve his own. Only he doesn’t. He’s a kid, and he can’t save them. When he figures that out, he simply leaves them to their limbo of misery. Yay, movie magic! Who needs a hug? (Besides every small child in the audience?)
The movie is disturbing and disturbed. The scenes of emotional pain and rage are actually frightening. There’s a lot of sadness and aching need in the film, and no resolution, no discussion, arguably no real growth. There’s a lot of inarticulate emotion. Max and his favorite monster howl forlornly, bonding over their plaintive yowls. It’s touching because it’s primal, but the film never goes further. When Max returns home to an equally inarticulate reunion with his mother, it’s strangely flat, and there’s no reason to think Max’s pensive, loving side (which we’d seen before his sojourn, as well) won’t again give way to the mania and rage tomorrow. Jonze creates an original, psychologically captivating world, but he doesn’t do enough with or for its unfortunate denizens.
Sendak has said the book was one of several he wrote about how children master certain feelings (unless Wikipedia is lying to me), but in this film, signs of mastery are not apparent. Max seems to recognize how frightening or unproductive the monsters’ dark emotions are, and that’s important, but it’s a good few steps from mastering them.
