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SPIKE JONZE'S FILM ADAPTATION OF MAURICE SENDAK'S CLASSIC children's book Where the Wild Things Are beautifully illustrates the emotional life of nine-year-old Max. The original story, written in 1963, depicts the inner life of a much younger child, where the tumult of Max's emotions is raw, reactive, and impulsive. Adults are never seen. The only intrusions by the mother in the book are two words, directed toward Max, “WILD THING!” to which Max replies, “I'LL EAT YOU UP!” Jonze and co-screenwriter Dave Eggers create an expansive fantasy of Max's inner world in this emotionally textured and visual masterpiece.
The original story is bookended by Max being driven away from home, at the beginning, by deprivation of food/nurturance and lured back again, at the end, by the smell of food. This film version depicts a Max driven from home out of a sense of alienation, and he returns after he establishes a clear sense of where he belongs.
On first viewing the film, I felt a disquieting betrayal of the way the younger Max was portrayed in the book compared with this cinematic latency-age child. It's likely that most children will be introduced to the book when it is read to them by an adult or an older sibling, providing a sense of closeness, dependence, comfort, acceptance, and containment as the child experiences the thrill/danger of Max sailing into his imaginary world…and back again. The scene conjures the quintessence of being between playing and reality (Winnicott, 1971).