Wonka Movie Review — Sucharita Tyagi
A whimsical, fantastical origin story about a guy who does magic and makes chocolate, set in what seems like an 1800s Paris-type city.
Made by the guy who brought us Paddington 1 and Paddington 2!
Could this be the holiday movie to top all holiday movies?
Hey y’all, my name is Sucharita, welcome back to the channel where we talk about movies and occasionally with people making them. Aaj let’s take a look at Paul King’s Wonka, starring Timothee Chalamet, now in movie theatres across India.
With wonder in his eyes and a song on his lips, Willy Wonka arrives at a European town, looking to make his fortune in chocolate. Alas, within the first song sequence, his money is lost to people trying to make a quick buck, swindling him down to his last 2 pennies/shillings/farthings. One he gives to a homeless woman, and the other he accidentally drops down the gutter. So, he is kind, but also sorta silly, not ready for real life. As he settles to sleep in the cold on a bench, a burly man offers him a free room at a lodge. The hidden catch however is in the terms and conditions Wonka fails to read, landing him trapped for what could be years in the owner, Mrs. Scrubbit’s basement, washing clothes for eternity. Now aware the world will destroy anyone with a kind heart trying to make their fortune the right way, Wonka must now begin to take matters into his own hands.
That Timothee Chalamet is a wildly talented actor, is not new information. From Interstellar to Dune, to now Kylie Jenner’s boyfriend, he’s frustratingly good at everything. As Wonka, there is a clear intention of giving the character the Timothee twist, making Wonka his own until someone tries to do another reboot 10 years later. The endeavor, however, is only partly successful.
There is a desperate positivity to the character, which while cute, takes slight getting used to. For most of us Indian millennials, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory conjures up Tim Burton’s dark take on the book. Freddie Highmore was Charlie, we adventured with HIM. With its 2023 aesthetics and styling, Wonka entirely side-steps this version, and goes back to 1971’s Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, jiska screenplay KHUD Roald Dahl ne likha tha. The only twisted thing here is a church jiske neeche chhup ameer log control power and money. Harmless and innocent children are not in danger, only Wonka’s aspirations to become a chocolatier are. This new Paul King story has more pointed remarks to make about the accumulation and gatekeeping of wealth, a message it manages to get across, if rather patchily.
Timothee Chalamet is a surprisingly nimble dancer, his singing though leaves a little to be desired. Perhaps not used to having a playback singer perform for you, like Indian actors, and the lack of professional-level singing ability translates into a rather ho-hum overall performance. Fun and shiny only in parts. As he introduces himself in a song in a market where he hopes to open his shop, it is difficult to care one way or the other. Which is the overarching feeling I had, after the film was over as well.
Just like its lead character, the film looks beyond beautiful. It’s all very Mary Poppins meets Fantastic Beats. Every little detail in the set is a moving piece, every thread in every outrageous outfit stitched in place with precise intent.
But beyond the aesthetic, the writing fails to present strong conflict or high stakes, to get involved with. You KNOW the lady with the bad teeth is not going to be able to keep Chalamet in her basement forever, because Olivia Colman has been given those bad teeth. You KNOW Keegan-Micheal Key will never succeed in his nefarious plans as the corrupt police officer, because he’s at the receiving end of fat jokes. Hugh Grant, in his much-debated role, doesn’t even appear for an hour-ish, and when he does show up, it’s Hugh Grant doing Hugh Grant dressed as an Oompa Loompa. It’s funny cuz he’s posh, but that’s about all the emotion the character generates. It could be AI, and one couldn’t tell the difference.
Wonka lacks the sense of wonder that should have been its baseline. Instead, it’s predictable and mostly unsurprising, the LAST two words one should be using when writing about a film that draws from such incredible source material. Perhaps it really is for a younger audience that isn’t burdened by their own expectations of what a good Timothee Chalamate performance looks like, and seeing the actor milk a giraffe will be enough to bring them joy. Or for an older audience with memories of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, they’d like to relive.
