Word: max
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What makes Sendak's book so compelling is its grounding effect: Max has a tantrum and in a flight of fancy visits his wild side, but he is pulled back by a belief in parental love to a supper "still hot," balancing the seesaw of fear and comfort. In expanding the story, Jonze (with co-writer Dave Eggers) invents just enough of Max's home life to convey the forces behind his disobedience. The parents of 9-year-old Max (played by Max Records, whose name and performance suggest he was born for this role) have split...
This is a reasonable qualm, but as Max might say, "Now stop!" Jonze, chronicler of uncertain adulthood in Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, has done a masterly job of bringing Sendak's work to the screen. He has broken one Hollywood doctrine: the notion that children's cinema is best devised for miniature couch potatoes who require a steady stream of laughs, action sequences and references to flatulence. Even the best American children's movies, like those made by Pixar, embed their heartfelt messages in what are fundamentally entertainments. The mysterious emotional turmoil and, let's face it, weirdness that...
...also glimpse Max at school, where, slumped over in classic bored-boy pose, he hears from his teacher that the sun, like all other things, will die. As Max's eyes widen almost imperceptibly, we realize that he is paying attention and is horrified. Jonze keeps the moment quiet, but it is one more piece in the puzzle of existential angst that drives Max to that fateful eruption with his mother. Here, instead of being sent to his room, he flees the house and goes racing through the neighborhood, baying like a wolf. He finds a boat and sets sail...
This is where Jonze unleashes his considerable creativity. The beasts are recognizable from Sendak's pages, but Jonze gives them names and distinct personalities that connect to aspects of Max's psyche and to the people he loves. (Freud would adore this movie.) They are vast, feathered, horned, clawed, beaked and definitely wild - irrational and dangerous, even when showing affection - and Jonze uses their threatening bulk as well as their capacity for cruelty to remind us that Max's taming of them is only temporary. For any child, it is near impossible to stay king of anything, even in fantasy...
James Gandolfini voices Carol, who most closely represents Max. Carol is a builder. He longs to create worlds, but as soon as their perfection falters in any way, he wants to tear them all down. "I like the way you destroy things," he tells Max when they first meet. It's a haunting performance, full of need and anger...