Remember a couple of weeks ago when I was complaining about the movie "Where the Wild Things Are"? My biggest complaint about it was that it took a simple story about a normal boy and turned it into a complex story about a bunch of dysfunctional characters. The story I love, the picture book story, seemed to be a creative prompt for a much darker movie, almost as if the movie had been based on a completely different book inspired by the picture book.
Well, guess what... it was.
The Wild Things
Dave Eggers
The Wild Things, based loosely on the storybook by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay co-written with Spike Jonze, is about the confusions of a boy, Max, making his way in a world he can’t control. His father is gone, his mother is spending time with a younger boyfriend, his sister is becoming a teenager and no longer has interest in him. At the same time, he finds himself capable of startling acts of wildness — he wears a wolf suit, bites his mom, can’t always control his outbursts. During a fight at home, Max flees and runs away into the woods. He finds a boat there, jumps in, and ends up on the open sea, destination unknown. He lands on the island of the Wild Things, and soon he becomes their king. But things get complicated when Max realizes that the Wild Things want as much from him as he wants from them. Funny, dark, and alive, The Wild Things is a timeless and time-tested tale for all ages.
2 comments:
Actually it sounds like the novel and movie were written at the same time. Dave Eggers wrote the movie with Spike Jonze but wrote the book alone. It was published the day before the movie was released.
Touche'
but I still liked the movie.
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