king

Well on the final day of the year denominated 2009 I saw a movie that was worth calling my favorite movie of the year. That is not to say that there weren't better movies out last year. I just hardly saw any of them, so I would have little idea what movies those would be. My final count, if my recollection serves me well, is 7 movies from this year. 2 of which I would put in the bad or did-not-like category, 4 in the enjoyed-to-varying-degrees-category, and 1 in the really-liked category.

So what is the movie? Where the Wild Things Are.

This was a very polarizing movie. I think the average movie-goer would be bored at best by this movie. Which is not to call myself an above-average movie-goer. I just have different tastes. Some of it is probably due to a prideful arrogance of sorts, but please don't read that as my intention here. And that is a bad part of me anyways, don't listen to that me.

The thing that grabbed me so intensely while watching this movie was actually the aspects of the gospel message in it. Now, I would just about guarantee that Spike Jonze (the director) was in no way intending this, but it is what jumped out at me. Jonze speaks to a number of universals that make up the fallen condition of man and the search for the eternal.

What he was attempting was to show the nature of a child. I am certain he knew how this would still jump to the condition of an adult as well, but his focus was specifically on a child. He impresses upon the audience the loneliness, the hurt and pain, and the desire a child gets for control. Control is a huge theme in the movie. As Max, the protagonist, cannot find control in his home (or the love he desires) he first acts out in an animalistic rebellion because he can't express himself in any other way, and as this brings him even less control, he runs away.

He runs to a place where he finds himself king. Now he has all the control, and what is more he controls his friends to be able to do his bidding. But of course this unravels as well, because he is no king. Still there is no control for him. He cannot make people love him. He cannot fix all the brokenness, all the pain.

Once more IMDB fails me in its quotation section for this movie. There was some juicy quotations that are completely missing from the quotation section. The one that most jumped out at me was something like, "What if there was a king that could do all this?" I wish I could remember the exact quotation, but it is as things unravel and Max is starting to lose his paradise.

I honestly would have to see it again to better map these thoughts out. I am also a few days removed now, plus reading the majority of a book, plus a run of comics, plus watching a half season of a TV show, all of which has faded the movie on me a bit. I wish I could give you more to go off of. Perhaps I will just have to see it again, heh.


I do not promise you will love this movie. As the credits began you could very clearly hear someone say, "that was weird," in an obviously annoyed tone. My roommate did not like the movie (Though he did say that I probably would; good job Ben.) The movie is weird. I am weird. I really enjoyed it.