**** 1/2 out of *****

When I was young, I dreamed to be Max, king of the Wild Things. I wanted to wild rumpus through the forest. To tear down trees. To howl. To build forts. To throw dirt clods at my friends. To live in a world where only the things I wanted to happen, happened.

But who didn’t? Childhood is a time for people to find their footing between imagination and reality and to learn how to balance both, and there are few entities that capture this struggle better than Maurice Sendak’s classic 10-line children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are. Max’s adventure has now been turned into a feature film with the same title, directed by Academy-Award-winning Spike Jonze (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich). Although the movie emphasizes atmosphere and feeling over plot development, the adaptation successfully embraces the complexities of Max’s mind.

Where the Wild Things Are begins with Max — a boy with an incredible imagination, who makes up stories of vampires, buildings, and his own kingdom. After fighting with his family, Max channels his isolation by donning a wolf costume, scampering down the block, and leaping into his own world inhabited by the Wild Things.

Approaching such a heralded children’s book provides a lot of obstacles for Jonze — expanding of 10 storybook lines into a full script, getting the author’s approval, and fulfilling expectations of children who love the book. However, the director clearly kept all these thoughts in mind as he explored Where the Wild Things Are. The world he presents combines both the imaginations of adults and children, blending the darkness and loneliness of being an awkward kid while capturing nostalgia. Max deals with his single mother, teenage sister, and questions about the world he learns in school, such as, is the Sun going to burn out?

The film focuses on atmosphere. Jonze is very careful with his cinematography, bouncing back and forth between hand held and steady camera work. Doing this allows the viewer to feel like a member of Max’s mind, perceiving and feeling things exactly how he does.

However, because the focus on atmosphere is so strong, some other key aspects of the film falter.

The script, penned by Jonze and Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Away We Go), has some pacing issues. At certain moments, a little too much emphasis was put on Max playing with a stick or kicking a rock instead of focusing on more character development and interactions.

In spite of its few flaws, Where the Wild Things Are pulls from the deepest part of the human condition. In Jonze’s interpretation, Max is a sad, lonely kid. He wants to be accepted, but doesn’t have anywhere for that to happen, so he creates his own world and then is even rejected from there.

As sad as that is, it’s OK — it’s all part of growing up. We learn. We love. We just have to keep it together enough to not eat each other.