Where the wild meets the road
movies I don't read much, but I enjoyed sitting through and finishing The Road one Saturday afternoon. On an airplane, I got through both the book Where The Wild Things Are and the script before seeing the movie. Both films come from books, but the strange tone of each film links them more for me.
Some critics and audience members have called Where The Wild Things Are cold. I can understand that. The movie doesn't demean its audience and approach sentimentality like a broadsword. Instead, the film acts like a confused child and succeeds in many ways. But, for me at least, I think that because it was lacking some emotional connection for me, that I left it underwhelmed, and this was one of my most anticipated films of the year. There are moments where the film connects with me, but they are few, and often work partly because of the music - such as the main theme being hummed by the child.
Conversely, the music in The Road is dismal and distracting. The Road needs to be detached completely, but the music softens it too much in key scenes. After the gun is first fired and a man is killed, the father and son run away and hide by the river. The father embraces the child trying to calm him down, and the music swells. What could have been a very touching scene was ruined by the forced attention on its own emotion, and rather than be in the immediate moment, I was taken back by the orchestra.
Too much sentimentality or too little can ruin a film. For Where The Wild Things Are, if there was more sentimentality, it may have become too much of a run-of-the-mill kids movie. But, as it stands, it's way too impersonal. The Road, probably unfilmable to begin with, hides its darkness in the light of music, and undercuts its own existence by doing so.
Both very good movies, but not my favorites of the year, sadly.