Film Review: "Wonka"

The new musical gives a compelling backstory to the classic character, and it manages to become a marvelous confection in the bargain.

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Like many other people, I was a bit skeptical–I might even go so far as to say hostile–to the idea that we were going to be subjected to a prequel focusing on Willy Wonka. I’ve been a fan of the 1971 film for years, of course, thanks in large part to Gene Wilder’s magnificently bizarre and disturbing performance as Willy Wonka, and there’s no doubt it continues to cast a very long shadow. More to the point, I couldn’t fathom why we needed a backstory for this character, but Hollywood, in its infinite wisdom and its desire to exploit every existing IP, decided that this what it would serve us in the Year of Our Lord 2023. 

Well, consider me corrected, dear reader, because the truth is that I absolutely adored Wonka. It’s fun and frothy and silly and endearing, all the things that you could possibly want from a Hollywood musical (and yes, despite the marketing suggesting otherwise, this is a musical). And, if you had any doubts that Timothée Chalamet could pull off playing the role of the master chocolatier, you need not worry any longer: he can! Though there are obviously some allusions to Wilder’s take on the character, Chalamet makes Wonka all his own, imbuing  him with a unique blend of knowing charm and childlike whimsy. There’s a soulfulness to Chalamet’s performance that’s his rather unique gift, and he made me care about this character and his backstory in a way I was not expecting. 

It certainly helps that he is paired with the equally talented Calah Lane, who plays the orphan Noodles, whom Wonka meets once he ie ensnared by the villainous Mrs. Scrubitt, who runs a boardinghouse/sweatshop. Equal parts precocious and vulnerable. Lane and Chalamet are perfect together, each of them bringing something meaningful and important to their relationship. Wonka reminds Noodles that there is always reason to hope and to indulge in the pleasures of the imagination, while she gives the sometimes-dreamy Wonka the groundedness he needs in order to both escape Scrubitt’s clutches and to begin setting up his own career as a chocolatier. 

Of course, no movie of this sort is complete without its compelling villain, and here too we get a feast. Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, and Mathew Baynton are perfectly cast as the nefarious trio of the chocolate cartel, Arthur Slugworth, Geral Prodnose, and Felix Fickelgruber. There’s something more than a little queer about them, as they preen and swan around and concoct schemes to bring down Wonka before his own extraordinary skills at chocolate confectioning bring their own inferior monopoly into absolute ruin. Their musical number is high camp, and yet another reason that you should run, not walk, to see this movie. 

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention two other highlights. One is Olivia Colman, who plays the outrageously cockney villain Mrs. Scrubitt, who exploits the labor of those foolish or unfortunate enough to land in her clutches. She may not be the movie’s Big Bad, but she absolutely steals any scene that she appears in, baring her yellowish teeth and chewing the scenery with them. Sally Hawkins, on the other hand, gives a more muted performance as Wonka’s late mother. Even though she is only on-screen for a very short time–largely in flashbacks–Hawkins exudes warmth and compassion. It’s easy to see why Wonka would hold her in such high regard and why she would remain his guiding light. 

For my part, I’m a little on the fence about the casting of Hugh Grant as Lofty the Oompa-Loompa. It’s definitely not one of his finest performances, and to be honest he seems to be phoning it in most of the time. This is in contrast to, say, his delightfully camp performance in Paddington 2. Moreover, I just didn’t buy him as one of the diminutive people who will come to play such a key role in Wonka’s confectionary practice, though I do appreciate that the film eschews Dahl’s original conception of the characters (rooted as it was in some very ugly racism and colonialist logic).

The screenplay is light on its feet, keeping the story moving at a pleasant clip, and I’m relieved that Wonka, unlike so many other films of late, doesn’t outstay its welcome. The songs are delightful and catchy, and there’s lots of spectacle and choreography. In short, it’s just the type of spectacle that you would expect of an old-fashioned musical and, given how infectious the numbers are, I’m still a bit flummoxed as to why so little of the marketing obscured the film’s obvious identity as a musical. What’s more, Chalamet proves more than able to hold his own in terms of his performance of the numbers, at least to my untrained ear.

Now it has to be said that there is one uniquely sour note in this charming confection, and that is, of course, the fatphobia. Keegan-Michael Key plays a rather bumbling policeman who is enlisted by the sinister trio of chocolatiers to bully Wonka into stopping his activities, bribing him with chocolate to do their bidding. As he devours more of said chocolate, he gains more and more weight, until he is practically round. It’s rather egregious that, in 2023, there are still films that think it’s okay to engage in this sort of mean-spirited humor (even if, as some have pointed out, this is in keeping with Roald Dahl’s own fatphobic tendencies). Don’t get me wrong. I love Keegan-Michael Key–he was astonishingly good in Schmigadoon!--but even his undeniable charisma and comedic talent is not enough to salvage the jokes made at his expense in the latter part of the film. Truly, a fat-suit like this one has no place in the films of 2023.

However, despite this flaw, there is an undeniable magic to Wonka. It’s the type of film that asks you as a viewer to abandon reality and all of its ugly complications and instead embrace the utopian joy that is the unique purview of the Hollywood musical. In other words, it invites us into this the confectionary realm of pure imagination.