The Movie is VASTLY Inferior to the Book.

NOTA BENE: This post was inadvertently not published on 10-23-09 when I actually saw the movie and wrote the review, but I hate to waste writing and I really hated the movie.

Just got in from seeing the heavily hyped Where the Wild Things Are with three of my favorite ladies in the whole world: Budge, the Girl Child, and the Girly Girl. I could say a lot, but in all honesty, I’m still in a bit of a shock at how not-what-I-expected this movie turned out to be. I didn’t HATE it, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

First of all, this is NOT a children friendly movie. Any child under age ten with the least bit of an imagination will have nightmares about MULTIPLE scenes in the film. It is surrealistically frightening in several places. Second of all, the movie is DEEP on some levels. That’s not bad, but it’s nothing like I expected either. Children, unless they are supernaturally precocious won’t “get” this movie at all. Everyone who does “get” it is going to be very sad, which brings me to my final idea that the movie is a TREMENDOUS downer. Don’t go thinking you are going to see a colorful enactment of a beloved children’s book. You aren’t. You’re going to see a morality play that will leave you in a funk for hours if you are of a regular emotional constitution. If you are like me, you may unfold from the finger-sucking fetal position in two or three days.

I will say one thing about the movie and hope no one judges me harshly for the multitudinous indiscretions of my youth. If you ignore the moral and pretend you haven’t read the book, you are in for a long, strange trip. The last time I felt like I did tonight after leaving a movie, I was in college and watched a double feature of Pink Floyd’s The Wall AND The Dark Side of the Rainbow in a VERY “smoky” apartment while simultaneously “riding the Magic Bus“, if you know what I mean. Taken just as a visual, this movie is like . . . wow, man.

Otherwise, wait for the DVD so you can watch barefooted and comfortably numb.

Love y’all. Have a good weekend.