There is a trend in Hollywood with characters being demystified, whether it is through a clever deconstruction of Luke Skywalker as seen in The Last Jedi, or the prequel TV series to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that explains the origins of Nurse Ratched. Rightly and/or wrongly, in an age where franchises never die, studios will some new crack that explains how an iconic character was conceived or what happens to them many years after. The latest subject is Willy Wonka, the eccentric chocolatier from the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
A Willy Wonka origin story is not a promising premise, even if we forget that we already got an origin of the character in Tim Burton’s divisive adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book. However, because this is directed and co-written by Paul King, best known for his two Paddington movies, this has got to be worth something.
Introduced as a young, aspiring inventor/magician, Willy (Timothée Chalamet) arrives by boat in an unnamed European city to fulfill his dream of opening his chocolate shop at the Galeries Gourmet. However, there are a number of obstacles that are determined to crush his dreams, from the devious Laundromat owner Scrubbit (Olivia Colman), to the Galeries’ three main chocolatiers – Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas), and Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton) – known as the Chocolate Cartel.
Considering the involvement of The Roald Dahl Story Company, the movie is less interested in its relationship to Dahl’s source material and function more as a prequel to Mel Stuart’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory from 1971. While it doesn’t have the 70’s surrealism from that movie, there are plenty of callbacks in Paul King’s Wonka, from the design of Hugh Grant’s Oompa-Loompa to the classic song “Pure Imagination”, now sung by Chalamet. That said, despite the nostalgia towards Mel Stuart’s musical, King brings in other influences that put a new perspective on Dahl’s world of chocolate.
Along with co-writer Simon Farnaby, who plays yet another funny security guard, King brings a lot of the energy from his Paddington movies, where we follow a young protagonist trying to find a home in a city that initially rejects him, only to find family through a group of people, each with their issues. Given its big budget, from the lavish production by Nathan Crowley to the stunning cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung (who replaced the original cinematographer Seamus McGarvey), the director never loses that charming British sensibility that feels like a chocolate box, which is appropriate given the film’s sweet nature.
What Wonka doesn’t achieve as well as Paddington is the intricate plotting, in that how a simple joke can pay off in the most satisfying way later. With the juggling of many characters, the script is rather loose, to the point that even Hugh Grant who steals the show as Lofty, feels more like an afterthought. The cast, whether they are playing innocent goodies to mischievous higher-ups, is still having loads of fun, from the comedy to the energetic songs written by Neil Hannon, led by Timothée Chalamet who is sensational in making the eccentric Wonka his own.
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