where the wild things are

this movie is stunning. i dont really have any sort of fond memories of the book its self, but the commercials for this one drew me in. its a children's story, but the movie is not really geared toward them, its a very dark and depressing film that mines the depths of sorrow and sadness. not really the stuff of children's fair. there isnt anything offensive in it and would be perfectly appropriate for children, but much of it would be over theyre heads and they might consider it 'boring'. that is not the case at all for me. i found this film to be enchanting and very moving. the story follows a boy named max as he deals with normal life. he lives with his mom and big sister. max is a bit strange and seems to be antisocial. he has a great time building a snow fort and throwing snowballs at his sister and her friends, but once one of the friends comes over and destroys his fort he gets very mad. he takes out his anger on his mother and is sent to his room. from there he escapes and somehow winds up in this magical land filled with creatures and beasts. the movie follows his time with the beasts, who are pretty somber wild things, to say the least. there is fun at first, but it quickly deteriorates into more sadness and the realization that life is not all fun and games. some times things can hurt.
the film deals with this sadness in a way that really shows what it can be like to feel depressed. by the end, nothing is solved, but thats like life, nothing gets solved, we just learn to deal with it. a moving lesson for max to learn, and a moving film for us to learn it too.