With dreams of opening a shop in a city renowned for its chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers.
Pam says:
Roald Dahl’s belovedly bizarre tale of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory from 1964 has been recreated more than once; Mel Stuart’s version starring Gene Wilder in 1971 and Tim Burton’s starring Johnny Depp in 2005 are still quite memorable. So why, oh why, create yet another iteration? I do not know. I truly do not know.
Paul King who gave us Paddington and Paddington 2, directs this newest film, “Wonka,” starring Timothy Chalamet as Willy, the chocolate maker. It’s an ambitious endeavor as it takes us into Willy’s world before he was successful; a mere poor young man battling the chocolatier thugs who are imitated by his skills. Unfortunately, no matter how star-studded the cast is — Olivia Colman, Keegan-Michael Key, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, and Hugh Grant — the burden falls onto the main star and the script, neither of which hold a candle to its predecessors.
The story introduces us to Wonka and a band of misfits and an orphan named Noodle (Calah Lane). Together they attempt to “change the world,” but the powers that be will have nothing to do with his magical confections that even “the poor” can afford. Of course, they fight against the crushing glass ceiling containing their dreams, boldly and beautifully, until they find success and happiness. While the journey is a colorful one filled with crazy, over-the-top characters, the story falls flat, like a cookie with no baking powder. Oh, and did I mention this is a musical? It is…and the musical numbers seem to be inserted just to prolong the agony, I mean the running time.
Chalamet is a talented actor whose roles in “Beautiful Boy” (2018), “Bones and All” (2022), and “Call Me By Your Name” (2017), all showcase his deeply dramatic skills and while he gingerly puts his toes of the comedic waters with “Don’t Look Up” (2021) and “The French Dispatch” (2021), he just doesn’t have the range to carry an entire film meant to make us laugh and gaze with wonder and awe the way that Depp or Wilder did in the same role. It’s painfully effortful as he struggles to sing, dance, AND hit the right comic notes, and the facial expressions, timing, and body language to deliver such a performance just aren’t there. And Chalamet is the core of the entire story which is quite hollow as you take a bite and then another; it’s completely dissatisfying.
Of course, Key, Colman, and Atkinson add their signature style of humor, but they just aren’t on screen enough and there’s a feeling of reservedness with their performances. Perhaps King’s direction reeled them in too tightly. Grant as the Oompa Loompa was fun and Hawkins shines in anything she does, but alas, by the time they show up on screen, I was already checked out of the story. The saving grace of the film is Lane’s performance as Noodle. Her timing, reactions, voice, and understanding of her character is far superior to Chalamet’s misguided performance.
“Wonka” is a bitter bite into the magical world of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory that may entertain the younger ones with its flash and visual awe, but we adults will find ourselves getting up for more milk chocolate concessions to escape the boredom of the movie.
1 1/2 stars
Chuck says:
I was initially skeptical about “Wonka,” yet another reboot-prequel-remake-whatsis, a masquerade for a quick cash grab. However, in the hands of director Paul King, who made the delightful and moving “Paddington” films, a bit of heart beats beneath the lavish production design and oft-times catchy tunes that populate it. It’s a good thing these pieces are as solid as they are as Timothee Chalamet, cast in the title role, is woefully out of place, a case of miscasting that would likely sink a lesser production.
After returning to England from a seven-year ocean voyage, Willy Wonka is ready to take the candy world by storm, as he uses secret, exotic ingredients, harvested from a tropical clime where he lived with his mother (Sally Hawkins), in his sweet concoctions. To be sure, his chocolates are something -they can make you float, give you a feeling of euphoria and see the most vivid sights. (That these candies are symbolic of hallucinogens and Wonka comes off as a bit of a pusher will surely go over the heads of the youngsters in the audience.) His product causes a sensation and the Chocolate Cartel – Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas) and Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton) – immediately take notice, as well as steps to quash their newfound competition.
Unfortunately, Wonka has problems on the home front as well, having unwittingly taken up residence at a boarding house run by two Dickensian villains, Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman) and Mr. Bleacher (Tom Davis). Having signed a lease without reading the small print, he’s fallen hopelessly in debt and is forced to work it off by laboring in their extensive laundry. Noodle (Calah Lane), Crunch (Jim Carter), Bell (Rakhee Thakrar), Piper (Natasha Rothwell), and Chucklesworth (Rich Fulcher) have also become indentured servants to their crooked landlords, each of them longing for a taste of freedom. Thankfully, Wonka has a plan to liberate them and working together they plan to open their own candy store.
Most of the songs are vibrant and memorable, “Scrub, Scrub” and “Have You Got a Sweet Tooth?” being standouts, while the enthusiasm of the cast gives the film a sense of warmth you can’t help but be charmed by. The production design is exceptional, the sets combining a Victorian Era aesthetic mixed with a rainbow of meringue. And as with the “Paddington” films, King doesn’t overdo the sentiment, his deft touch gradually creating a sense of genuine poignancy that’s hard to resist.
The film fires on all pistons, except for Chalamet, whose contemporary approach to the seminal character proves to be the spanner in this elaborate work. Instead of being the character, you get the sense the actor is commenting on him, a sense of snark peeking through the threatens to break the overall spell. Chalamet takes a parodical approach to the material instead of buying into it. He’d have done well to give himself over to the material as others in the veteran cast have done, a sense of delight obvious in each of their turns. As for Hugh Grant’s appearance as an Oompa-Loompa, which was cause for concern among those with too much time on their hands, he steals every scene he’s in, his sardonic wit a perfect counterpoint to Chalamet’s overearnest attempts at innocence.
Once the movie ends, we can’t help but wonder how this innocent young man becomes the slyly malevolent businessman we see in the 1971 Gene Wilder classic. Roald Dahl’s undercurrent of dark humor is absent and while King is free to blaze his own path where telling the story of Wonka’s early years are concerned, the dissonance in tone between “Wonka” and the two previous film versions is obvious. That being the case, if a sequel to this film is forthcoming, here’s hoping it has the nerve to explore the transition the character undergoes from wide-eyed innocent to world-weary cynic.
3 1/2 Stars
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