The powers that be have been determined to make more out of Willy Wonka for decades. After the success of 1971’s WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, Nestlé Company rendered him as a cartoon pitchman to hawk a moderately successful line of chocolate bars. Johnny Depp famously redid the character in the 2005 remake CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY with too many notes of Michael Jackson. And now Timothée Chalamet reinvents the character almost wholly as a sweet, young adventurer out to make a name for himself and his candy-colored vision of life in WONKA. Chalamet is a very good song & dance man here, and the film has a rollicking flair to it from start to finish. You’ll tap your toes, laugh a lot, and smile throughout, but still, it’s missing a little something. Something Wilder.
Gene Wilder created the role in 1971 and the trick to his interpretation is that not until the very end did Wonka ever really show any heart. Arguably, it was there all the time, but the way it was written and the way Wilder played the part was almost like a stone-cold killer. With his huge, staring eyes and often deadpan delivery, Wilder’s Wonka gave off the impression that he might have wanted to give the bratty kids touring his plant their (ahem) just desserts. That’s right, death. Was he rooting for them to screw up and then die during the tour? I kinda think so. Thought it as a kid, and now as an adult. And there, in that darkness, is what made 1971’s version so unequivocably genius. Wilder, the filmmakers, and author Roald Dahl whom they were adapting, all knew that kids love to be scared. And their Wonka was scary.
But every take on Wonka since then has resisted such darkness, including this origins story. If you can accept that, you’ll love this holiday film as the gift it often is. Filmmaker Paul King is terrific with such material and lent his PADDINGTON BEAR films the same zest, wit, and superb production values. It feels a lot like Paddington, as well as Little Orphan Annie, and even Les Miz at times, but it never quite revels in Dahl’s darker writing and Wilder’s wickedness.
This film’s positivity announces itself as it introduces Willy singing atop the mast of a ship heading to a town that looks like London around the turn of the 20th century. He warbles about his dream of making the world’s best chocolate and it’s a sharp tune that turns into a terrific opening dance number once he hits land. (Oh, did I mention WONKA is a musical? Funny, the trailer skipped that fact too.) Everything after that is just as frothy and fun, but it doesn’t ever really turn towards anything truly dark or sinister. Oh sure, there are numerous villains, five of them featured prominently, but they’re all doofuses. They’re vividly eccentric and funny, but not much of any real threat. Certainly no threat of death, like the original film seemed to toy with throughout.
Those standing between Wonka and his dreams are three competing chocolatiers (Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, and Matthew Baynton), a crooked policeman (Keegan-Michael Key), and a nasty innkeeper (Olivia Colman). Colman’s Mrs. Scrubbit is a hoot and the ol’ shrew shrewdly indentures the naïve Wonka to a contract to work for her when he thinks he’s merely signing a document for an overnight room. At least he meets her young teen assistant, the savvy Noodle (Calah Lane). She becomes Willy’s new bestie, helping him think of ways to launch his treats as well as get out of their servitude. (That’s using your noodle – get it?)
King and his fellow screenwriter Simon Farnaby give all of this wit and verve, and the songs by Jody Talbot and Neil Hannon have lots of sparkle if not the most hummable melodies. One misses Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse’s classic cues, but King is wise to reprise their “Pure Imagination” and “Oompa Loompa Song” during the run of the film’s 116 minutes.
Speaking of Oompa-Loompas, the best scenes in the film are those graced by Hugh Grant as a grumpy Oompa-Loompa trying to thwart Wonka too. It seems Willy stole some precious resources from the island of Oompa Loompa and Grant’s 12-inch tall native, courtesy of CGI rendering, pops up in the story to get the product back. Orange-hue Grant scores a laugh with every line he utters and it’s his character that promises some of the nastier snark that characterized the original film in ’71.
Hopefully, if this film is a success and warrants a sequel, they’ll let Chalamet’s Wonka become moodier and more calculating. Maybe even dangerous. I’d also love it if Grant returned and they let him run amuck. (It feels like he’s ad-libbing a lot.) No matter, this WONKA is a great deal of fun, but it just needed to be darker, meaner, and yes, wilder.
