2009: Where the Wild Things Are

Spike Jonze's film about the mildly unruly boy Max's adventures in a land of benevolent monsters manages some moments of beauty and is otherwise professionally done (although Jonze should have cut down on the shaky camera in my view), but my enjoyment of the film was marred by observing how right down to the last stain on Max's face the product was painstakingly geared towards the target audience - not young boys, mind you, but the kinds of parents that don't allow plastic toys in their homes and will no doubt reach the conclusion that this is the kind of film young boys ought to like. The boys themselves, one imagines, would rather watch Transformers 2. (6)