The Wild Things

A straight-up psychological exploration of the young boy's mind, overlain on the structure of a beloved kids' book. I liked it! I remember being as angry as Max was, and not knowing what to do with that anger, but knowing anything I thought to do would somehow be wrong. I imagine every man (and many women) have the same memory. This book plugs into that, and the collection of beasts from Sendak's book become the embodiment of the childhood Id.

My only disappointment is that there wasn't a bit more real-world denouement. I haven't seen the movie, nor have I ever read the original Sendak book, so I came to the story fresh, and enjoyed it.

Fabulous. Much better than the movie. Partially, this may be due to the small deviations the story takes from that of the screenplay. Mostly, though, this stands as a solid example of how books can tell a deeper story than film. Perhaps the movie could have revealed Max's psyche to us through first-person narration, but it's hard for me to imagine another medium allowing me to empathize with his struggles as I could here.