By Nigel Powlson

HERE are less than 400 words in Maurice Sendak's children's story Where The Wild Things Are.

It used to take me less than five minutes to read it to my children before they drifted off to sleep. It was never their favourite story, although they loved the pictures.

It didn't cross any of our minds that it could possibly be enough to nourish a $100m movie. And we were right.

Spike Jonze's film adaptation hasn't really got much of a story to work with. Instead it strives to capture the feel of the book, that inner sadness that comes from being a lonely child, that desire to shut out the real world and to dive into fantasy.

It's a labour of love for Jonze, still best known for the quirky brilliance of Being John Malkovich. He has devoted years to bringing Sendak's book to the screen.

And like all of Jonze's work, this is an idiosyncratic movie which defies current blockbuster logic. Despite being a fantasy adventure it retains his naturalistic film-making style – subdued lighting, handheld cameras, light editing. As such, it comes across as weird rather than magical.

Max Records plays nine-year-old loner Max, who lives with a mother (Catherine Keener) who misunderstands him and an older sister (Pepita Emmerichs) who ignores him.

When mum brings home a new boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) Max's pent up feelings erupt, he bites his mother and runs off into the night.

Stealing a boat he sails to an island occupied by giant, long-haired creatures with faces like church gargoyles, one of which wants to eat him.

But before Judith (voiced by Catherine O'Hara) can gobble him up, he persuades the Wild Things' leader Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini) that he's an exiled king and thus deserves their protection.

Carol is, of course, the wild thing inside Max, thrashing out at all around him because he's scared, lonely and wants to be hugged. Together Max and Carol learn about family and growing up. The other Wild Things get grumpy, have tantrums and throw clods of mud at each other.

The book did it all in five minutes. Jonze takes just over an hour and a half.

Children are likely to be disturbed (Max is swallowed by a Wild Thing at one point) alienated or bored by the film.

Grown-ups searching for their inner child might find more to admire.

Some mums, charmed by the guileless Max, might even shed a tear.

But this is still more of an oddity than a classic.