Dinner & A Show: Longhorn Steakhouse & "Where The Wild Things Are"

Dinner…

Longhorn Steak House

21075 Dulles Town Circle

Dulles, VA 20166

There are times when a man (or a woman) needs a steak. When that time comes, there are certainly worse steaks to be had than that served by the good people at Longhorn Steakhouse, outside Dulles Town Center mall.  Other Northern Virginia locations are in Chantilly

What I like about a steakhouse is that it is unapologetic about red meat. If it was anything less then you wouldn’t have the joy of a steak wrapped in bacon (whisky sirloin) or western cheese fries with all-beef chili and Monterrey jack cheese. Your cholesterol may not forgive you, but your conscience will. Longhorn serves a very good steak, as I learned  by happily chomping away on my “Renegade Top Sirloin.” If you’re feeling like a health nut—do what I did and order the mixed vegetables and rice on the side. There was nothing but a clean plate left over.

The décor at Longhorn is certainly part of the charm and the draw for Longhorn. Western themed throughout, they also include some roadhouse details—like the bear’s head wearing a baseball cap or the bass fish hanging from the ceiling with horns. The service is friendly and Longhorn does pretty good business in the evenings.

…And a Show

Where The Wild Things Are (PG)

Synopsis:

A lonely child, Max runs away from home to discover himself in a land of giant monsters who make him their king in this adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved children’s book.   

Review:

“Where The Wild Things Are” is a beautiful disaster.

Have no doubt, Spike Jonze has created a heartbreakingly beautiful movie. It’s very well acted and very well shot. The problem is that (again), it’s a film without an audience. It is simply too slow and depressing for children and too minimalist and childlike for most adults. The drama is slow and extremely heavy.

The movie fails where the book was a success. In the book, while Max does get lonely and returns home—there is still a sense of joy and fun throughout the book. Max is having fun and the monsters are having fun. Reading about it, the readers had fun, too. There is simply no joy in the movie adaptation. These are monsters who need Prozac.

Instead of creating a movie for children, Jonze provides a movie about children using the monsters as ciphers for the childhood traumas of life and transforming Max into a hapless parent who wants to do the right thing, but instead makes everything worse.  Adapting a book is a dangerous business—especially if you’re creating a feature film from 15 pages and very minimal narration. So beloved and joyful was Sendak’s original that most viewers would be willing to forgive any addition except the subtraction of the wonderment and happiness that was part of the original—and that’s exactly what Jonze did.

If you’re in a minimalist art house mood, feel free to give it a try—just leave the kids at home. The 101 minutes of film is difficult for younger children in general—doubly so for those kids who need more excitement in their movie viewing.

Rating (1-5): 2

John Geddie is very concerned that Tony Soprano was a wild thing.

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