Basically, that's pretty much it: a totally unsympathetic 9-year-old boy gets into a pointless fight with his equally unsympathetic mom and has a serious psychotic break with reality during which he imagines visiting an island inhabited by a bunch of remarkably neurotic monsters.
Maybe it's because I didn't know this book as a kid, but I found it hard to care about anyone in this movie, "real" or imaginary. I found it hard to even stay awake.
I don't mind "dark" movies about troubled characters. Some movies about mental illness, like "A Beautiful Mind", are masterpieces. But there has to be a point or message, an achievement or gained insight, something that makes the trip worthwhile. And I just didn't see one in this movie.
Maybe it's because I didn't know this book as a kid, but I found it hard to care about anyone in this movie, "real" or imaginary. I found it hard to even stay awake.
I don't mind "dark" movies about troubled characters. Some movies about mental illness, like "A Beautiful Mind", are masterpieces. But there has to be a point or message, an achievement or gained insight, something that makes the trip worthwhile. And I just didn't see one in this movie.
