It was two enthusiastic thumbs up for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are on At the Movies. Okay, fine, it wasn’t exactly thumbs but you get the idea – early review, positive response. AO Scott said:
“This is one of the most unusual and audacious big budget children’s movies ever made. And also one of the saddest. And I think kids will be fine with it. Kids will understand the mood and the way that Max interacts with the real world and with the imaginary world. I think some parents will be frightened of it because it takes those emotions so seriously. It goes so deep. But this is a wonderful movie.”
Michael Philips:
“I was completely unprepared for the emotional texture of Where the Wild Things Are. ” And “It won’t be for everyone but for me it was pure magic.” And “It’s unbelievable how beautifully this is handled.”
(thanks to Nick for the headsup):
They go on for a while. Meanwhile, over at the Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt wasn’t so keen on the film:
Children might enjoy the goofy monsters and their fights and squabbles, but adults likely are to grow weary of the repetitiveness. In the end, the book probably was too slender to support a 102-minute movie. Without a quest to propel the story, such as Dorothy’s journey in “The Wizard of Oz,” the movie turns into an afternoon-special with an easily digested moral that fails to grab youngsters by the collar and shake them up with an exciting adventure.
And Variety’s Todd McCarthy had much the same reaction:
Free to have the wild things speak however they wanted, Jonze and Eggers surprisingly give them the voices and attitudes of middle-aged urban kibitzers; vaguely complainy and neurotic, the creatures are dominated by their sense of isolation and sadness. On the face of it, this is a choice with some wit behind it. But it also defangs the beasts from the outset — one never fears that any of them would dream of making a meal out of Max — and in the long run makes them far too ordinary.
ADDENDUM: We can include this positive review from Emanuel Levy. [RCA]
Facing the greatest artistic challenge of his career to date, one that has taken half a decade and a budget north of $80 million to execute, Jonze has set out to make an adult movie about childhood for both young and mature viewers, rather than a children’s movie per se; the movie, like the book, does not talk down to young people…
The best element of Jonze’s vividly imagined adaptation is the acting, and the director should be commended for gathering an ensemble of gifted actors that, while covered with suits, still manage to be impressive and singular in both delivery of dialogues and behavioral gestures. Each of the participants is a fully conceived individual creature with motivations and behaviors all his/her own, defined by gender, physical appearance, marital status, and tangled social relationships.
23 Responses for "Where the Wild Things Are, Early Reviews"
I predict the response to the film will be like the response to “Babe: Pig in the City”, which many critics deemed far too dark but I loved. Despite the good-but-not-great words from Variety and Hollywood Reporter, I think it’ll be great.
Just saw the promo for this on HBO tonight:
Slant also gave the film a decent not great review. I think the film will be good but nothing WOW.
Peter Travers gave this a rare 4 star review.
the hollywood reporter and variety have missed the mark more then once this year, im starting to really dislike kirk
Travers while disliked but some, is a solid critic who rarely gives out 4 stars.. This movie is going to be great like we all hoped.
Kirk? The same guy who didn’t like Basterds for totally inane reasons? The non pretentious critics are loving it, why does Levy get posted over ”thumbs down for The Road” Mccarthy?
neither of those reviews were really that negative though sasha, with plenty of good things to say as well
Great reviews from Michael Philips, AO Scott, Peter Travers, and Roger Ebert are enough for me to see it.
Ebert just loves Jonze so I dont see him being to harsh.
babalabalu, who doesn’t love Spike Jonze?
And I can’t believe that a film Spike Jonze has spent almost a decade on would not be “anything special”. That would be a pretty crushing disappointment, which I have not heard said yet. I mean, this is the man who has made two of the most inventive films of the past decade. Sure they were written by Charlie Kaufman, but Jonze took Kaufman’s labyrinthine scripts and made them as coherent as they could possibly be. (That’s not a critique of Kaufman, I love his scripts. ) I just think it was that Kirk expected a three-act structured kids movie and got something different. He didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t his cup of tea.
I cannot wait. I don’t care what any reviewers say about it.
Same for me I’ll be my own reviewer. And something tells me I’m going to love this nomatter what anyone else thinks about it.
This year’s Wall-E. I will need tissues.
Some more love… I can’t wait.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/42677
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/42679
OMG, “monsterpiece”! Sounds fantastic! I hope this does great at the boxoffice and awards. The marketing is the best this year.
Could the kid upset and get a BA nom?
George, where did you see a review from Ebert?
Very early yet, but this isn’t looking like a critics’ favorite.
BFCA – 78
RT – 78%
MC – 60
Hope it goes up! In any case, I think I’ll probably love it.
Neither HR nor Variety’s reviews were interpreted as positive by MC or RT.
& just to throw this out there: only one male minor has ever been nominated for Best Actor, and that was for a movie that won Best Director. I don’t see this doing either.
Tyler, one of the TV spots had a quote from the Chicago Sun Times: “An instant classic”
This is Travers’ second 4 star movie of the year, the first being…”Up”.
I cannot wait for the movie now.
I’m not a fan of Honeycutt at all so that’s all good. 1 of my favorites Travers is all raves. If Ebert and Berardinelli are the same, then that’s all I need.
Really disappointed by these reviews.
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