This film comes from director Jake Scott.  Scott has done some TV stuff, but most notably, he’s directed music videos for Radiohead, Tori Amos, REM, and The Cranberries.  The story is written by Ken Hixon, who written anything since the 2002 De Niro film, City by the Sea.  When summarized, the story sounds awfully cliched.  James Gandolfini plays Doug Riley, a successful business owner who’s married to a literal shut in played by Melissa Leo.  She hasn’t left the house since her daughter died in a car wreck four years ago.  In an attempt at a normal relationship, Doug starts sleeping with a diner waitress, is dies at the beginning of the movie.  During a business trip to New Orleans, Doug comes across Mallory (Stewart), who looks quite a bit like his daughter, and clearly need help.  He moves in with her.  He takes the energies formerly focused on his affair, and redirects it too her.  This prompts the shut in mother to drive down to the Big Easy, where she ends up moving in with the two, and they become a makeshift family, teaching each other to heal…

Yes, it’s about as cliched as you get.  Fortunately, there are some fantastic parts of the film.  Leo’s performance is outrageously good.  Usually stuck in heavy handed crime dramas (Homicide, Frozen River), she was free to showcase her perfect comedic timing.  I’m not being over superlative to say that she was the best part of the show.  Next comes Stewart, whom I love to hate.  I’m not sure why.  But this is the first film that I’ve seen her in where I felt like she wasn’t playing herself.  She really made an impression and if this is the sort of stuff we can expect out of her, I’ll soon be a fan.  Then there was Gandolfini, who can’t do a southern accent to save his live.  The script had fun making him a puritanical sort, which made his speech to Mallory about not using the f-word just SO hilarious since we all know him as Tony Soprano.  Yes, the irony is that in-your-face.  This is certainly standard Sundance fare, especially considering the ending, which is the same ending I’ve seen in three movies so far at the festival.  However, after a slow start, it picks up quite niceles.  It’s definitely above average, and is both charmingly funny, and will tug at your heartstrings.

3 out of 4 stars

The two names attached to the film that required a viewing are, of course, Spike Jonze (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) and Dave Eggers (Away We Go, You Shall Know Our Velocity).  It turns out that I put this blind faith in the right hands.  Jonze had turned the beloved children’s book by Maurice Sendak and made it into an ethereal, visceral cinematic experience.

Max (Max Records) is an imaginative, rambunctious boy who’s world is shifting at it’s very foundation when his parents get divorced and his mom (Catherine Keener) starts dating someone again (Mark Ruffalo).  Fighting to find his place he acts out and extremely sensitive, like most little boys would be.  One night, after a squabble with his mom, Max runs away, finds a small boat, which he boards and rides until he gets to the place where the wild things are.

Once he gets there, he meets a motley group of friends: Carol (James Gandolfini), Alexander (Paul Dano), Judith (Catherine O’Hara), Ira (Forest Whitaker), KW (Lauren Ambrose), and a few others.  Like Max, the group finds themselves in a state of change.  The group dynamics are shifting, and no one is really happy about it.  Before the eat Max, he convinces them that he’s a king and can solve all their problems.  Desperate for a leader to fix them, they all play along.

The feel of the film is so perfectly and beautifully lachrymose, it’s impossible not to get sucked into Max’s imagination.  The script (which Eggers had a monumental task of taking the short children’s story to a feature-length film) wasn’t pretentious or obtrusive, it was charmingly hilarious and, when it needed to be, poignant and touching.  Records is a fantastic actor.  I can’t imagine any other child actor working today that could have outdone him in this performance.  While all the wild things were great, Lauren Ambrose really managed to steal the show with her voice acting.

Cinematographer Lance Acord (Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation) shows off his tremendous talent of framing shots and locations to create a truly unique and affecting world that perfectly contrasts all the emotions Max and his friends could possibly be struggling with.  What everyone is saying is true: it’s darker than the book, and may not be perfect for small children, but this is a masterpiece of film.

4 out of 4 stars