Everyone has to be familiar with the story - Max is sent to bed without supper and his room magically becomes a forest inhabited by the "wild things". Max is able to tame them and becomes their ruler. Soon, however, he becomes homesick and returns home. Yep, that's pretty much it. The book is 9 sentences spread over 20 pages, and is often considered a masterpiece of American children's literature. I know what you're thinking - a 20 page picture book stretched out into a 90 minute movie? It will never work. Well, I'm glad to report that for the most part, it did, and it worked extremely well.

The Wild Things are exactly as I imagined them, their design, emotions and expressions are all perfect. The actors who provide the voices are great, and match the personality of each Wild Thing. James Gandolfini voices "Carol", the leader of the Wild Things, and you can hear shades of Tony Soprano in some of his delivery. Props go out to Paul Dano, who lends his voice to Alexander, the Wild Thing who is often in the background and no one really pays attention to - ironic (or maybe intentional) that he makes some of the most astute observations of all the Wild Things. Max Records give a phenomenal breakthrough performance as Max, the king of the Wild Things, this kid is going to go places.
I had ridiculously high hopes for this film, and most of them were met, but there was of course, a little bit of disappointment. My one issue - the movie takes a abrupt turn about an hour in and gets sidetracked for almost 20 minutes with a subplot that's never actually resolved, and isn't really integral to the overall story. Some of the Wild Things say and do things that are out of the character they had been built up as over the first hour, and it took me right out of the moment. Jonze could have left this part out and still made his voice heard - it just acted as filler and fluff that took away (for me at least) from the overall feel of the film. It had this kind of, dark underscoring that didn't really need to be there.
Highly recommend this, and it will easily make many critics top 10 lists at year and, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it make the cut for Best Picture, and rake in a slew of technical nominations. This was only the 4th time the film had been screened in North America, so that was pretty cool. Opens a week from tomorrow, October 16. Grade: A
Andrew Lloyd Webber's follow up to the ubersmash The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies had its big press announcement this morning in London. Originally, the production was supposed to open simultaniously in London, New York and Australlia. Because that seemed like the ultimate logistical nightmare (but an interesting concept none the less), now it's going to open in London on March 9, 2010, New York on November 11, 2010 and sometime in 2011 in Australia. Check out the video from the announcement - Ramin Karimloo sounds like an excellent Phantom, hopefully he'll open the show in New York too...if not, maybe a trip to London next spring is in order?
Half Marathon this weekend, a little nervous, but I think that I will do fine. I'm only $100 away from my goal, and you can still donate! Excited to collapse and have nothing to think about on Monday, probably going to finally see Bright Star.
MLB post season began last night, Yanks, Phillies and Dodgers won - Sox open their series tonight with the Angels in Anehim. The Sox/Angels match up has been played 5 times, with the Sox advancing every time (winning 12 out of 15 games) - can they make it 6 in a row? Probably, BUT, the Angles do have a lot riding on their season, some calling it their destiny, because of the untimely death of Nick Adenhart in April. It would be pretty intense if the Angels went all the way, but I'm not 100% sure...And! The Bruins season started last week too! I'm going on November 12th with dad - we have premium seats! woo!
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