by James Coulter
I’m going to be perfectly honest: I had exceptionally low expectations going into this movie. When the first trailer was released last year, I rolled my eyes so hard watching it. Really? Who, in the Year of Our Lord 2023, was asking for a Willy Wonka origin story? Apparently, Warner Bros. seeing as they greenlit this concept for no other apparent reason than to bank on nostalgia for the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
To be fair, the original 1964 story by Roald Dahl certainly has room for adaptation outside of the 1971 classic. Tim Burton offered his darker, more twisted take on the tale with his 2005 remake. A stage musical created by David Greig has been performing since 2013. And, lest anyone forget, even Tom and Jerry had their own animated crossover in 2017. So, if anything, there’s a slim chance this prequel film starring Timothée Chalamet as the titular Wonka could very well offer a unique take on the classic chocolatier. But will it give us a world of pure imagination? Or is this movie oompa loompa doopity done on arrival?
This movie is the origin story of the amazing chocolatier Willy Wonka. Before he owned his imagination-defying factory, Wonka was a poor young lad with barely twelve silver coins in his pocket and a hatful of dreams. His biggest dream, of course, is to make and sell the best chocolate anyone has ever tasted. Of course, fulfilling that dream will require overcoming many obstacles including a conniving chocolate cartel, scheming landlords, and corrupt cops. Will Wonka succeed in opening his own chocolate factory, or—well, it’s a prequel, so that answer is obvious!
Wonka is a movie that’s hard to hate. The film essentially requires you to suspend your disbelief and leave your jaded adult cynicism at the theater doors. Because if you refuse to turn your brain off, you’re certainly going to nitpick every little thing on-screen and realize how trite and bland this film is, what with its melodramatic story, cardboard flat one-dimensional caricatures as characters, and a plot that’s both overly simple yet simultaneously overtly complicated.
Perhaps most egregious is the film’s trite premise of a young wide-eyed entrepreneur who goes from rags to riches by “pulling himself up by his bootstraps” through sheer brain power and elbow grease. This story may have been more believable during a more affluent age, but during these economically uncertain times, the overall message rings especially hollow.
In our current late-stage capitalist hellscape, where inflation has made the cost of everything from food to gas unaffordable, where the American Dream of owning your own home through only a single job and a high school education has become unattainable, where techbro grifters attempt to make easy money with stolen content through artificial intelligence and NFTs, where Jeff Bezos has become the richest man in the world while his workers require government assistance, where corporate profits continue to grow while the middle class shrinks, the idea that anyone can become ultra-wealthy through only hard work has become almost a bigger fantasy than that of a candy factory with a chocolate river run by little orange men.
Even then, Wonka still has an undeniable charm to it. To its credit, the film is directed by Paul King, who also created the surprisingly delightful Paddington films. So if anyone knows how to make a whimsical film, it’s him. Timothée Chalamet does an exceptional job performing the titular character, and Hugh Grant essentially steals the show through his performance of an Oompa Loompa—a role he’s evidently too good for, and yet he gives his all regardless.
The film’s biggest selling point, undoubtedly, is the music. While the songs are nowhere nearly as memorable as those in the 1971 classic, the musical numbers certainly prove captivating and entertaining. “A Hatful of Dreams” opens the film with a good start, and “For A Moment” certainly proves sufficently sentimental. And, of course, any rendition of “Pure Imagination” is going to be good.
If anything, Wonka requires the right mindset to watch. If you’re looking for a good film to turn your brain off and forget about the grind of daily life, this movie certainly offers a good distraction. The music and visuals are at least whimsically delightful enough, even if the story and characters are lacking. And it certainly makes for a good holiday film to put people in the holiday spirit even now that the holiday season is over. If you go into a film expecting to have a good time, you’ll certainly enjoy a good enough film.
