Move Musings: Where the Wild Things Are & Stranger Than Fiction

Children and parents everywhere love Maurice Sendack's Where the Wild Things Are, and I, being no different, was looking forward to seeing the film version released last year. My English coworkers had never heard of Maurice Sendack or his book, so I invited one of them to go with me to a showing at the small local theater.

If you haven't seen it yet, don't. Certainly don't show it to your children. And if you must see it, have your best friend/therapist/chinese-takeout-place on speed dial. It is one of the most depressing films ever made. And I don't mean sad or scary. I mean a story absolutely without hope or redemption. In Spike Jonze's worlds both real and imaginary, life stinks and it's not going to get better.

Instead, see Stranger Than Fiction in which, when life gets bad, there will be Bavarian Sugar cookies.

"And, fortunately, when there aren't any cookies we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving gesture, or a subtle encouragement, or a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort, not to mention hospital gurneys, and nose plugs, and uneaten Danish, and soft-spoken secrets, and Fender Stratocasters, and maybe, the occasional piece of fiction."

Stay hopeful, encourage each other, and eat cookies,
LeAn

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A reminder of my rating system - Scales from 1 - 5; first number: is this a well made film? Second number, would I watch it again?

Where the Wild Things Are - 4/0
Stranger Than Fiction - 3/5

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