Pure Sugar
Not even Timothée Chalamet’s So-so vocals can take the sweet and chewy joy out of the movies’ best-ever Willy Wonka.
Wonka
Director: Paul King • Writers: Simon Farnaby, Paul King, based on characters by Roald Dahl
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Jim Carter, Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant
UK / USA • 1hr 57mins
Opens Hong Kong December 7 • I
Grade: B+
I’ll admit to not being a card-carrying member of the Cult of Dahl. I’ve have never fully grokked the appeal of Willy Wonka and his candy factory. By the time I saw the 1971 Gene Wilder “classic” – Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, complete with psychedelic swirlies and Wilder throwing delicious shade at children (okay, props for that) – the Wonka workshop just came off looking like a more colourful, sneakier version of a Nestlé plant. No good could possibly come of that. Never read Matilda, or James and the Giant Peach, or The BFG. Maybe my mama didn’t love me enough. Whatever the case, Willy Wonka has never been my “thing”. So when Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s already stale partnership farted out a remake in 2005, I skipped it. If you’re anything like me (for the record, The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music can both suck it), you’ll wonder if there’s anything in Paddington director Paul King’s Wonka to keep you awake.
Yes. Yes there is. Lots in fact. And holy shit does it ever cause me pain to say that. It’s rare the word “delightful” comes free of condescension but in Wonka’s case it does. This is an origin story (of course) that riffs on Mel Stuart’s ’71 film and tells us how Willy Wonka (manling Timothée Chalamet, perfect for the job) made his way to a garden variety European city at an unfixed time in history, fought the chocolate law, and won. It’s loaded up with hyper-stylised production design (by The Greatest Showman’s Nathan Crowley, obvs), captured by just-swooshy-enough camera work – DOP Chung Chung-hoon (Oldboy, Last Night in Soho) knows when to let loose and when to sit down – and gobs of absolutely hilarious background detail and character quirks that make the whole thing ideal holiday movie-going. God, I hate saying that.
Rewriting the stars?
This shouldn’t really be a surprise. King clearly practised some witchcraft when he conjured a legit classic in Paddington and captured lightning in a bottle a second time with Paddington 2 (we’ll see what happens with Paddington in Peru in his absence). So you could say Wonka makes it a hat trick. On top of some of the best technicians in the business chipping in, he gets a lot of clever, and yes, sweet, help from writer-actor Simon Farnaby (Ghosts), and a murderer’s row of Britcom giants (Rowan Atkinson, Murder in Successville’s Tom Davis, Little Britain’s Matt Lucas) and veteran award winners (Jim Carter, Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant).
Willy gets off a steamer ship and lands in that European city – a little Paris, a little London, a touch of Munich – vowing to fulfil his chocolate-making dreams. When he realises how expensive the city is a pair of shady masters of the house, Mrs Scrubbit and her partner Bleacher (Colman and Davis, perfection), sucker him into indentured servitude in their laundry. It’s there he meets his eventual crew of candy-lovers, also suckered by Srubbit and Bleach: accountant Abacus (Jim Carter), Piper (Natasha Rothwell), telephone operator Lottie (Rakhee Thakrar) and middling comedian Larry (Rich Fulcher). Above all is fellow orphan Noodle (smart, modern newcomer Calah Lane), who’s destined for a life in the basement. Willy’s confections are a hit with the masses – when he can get them to them – and he and his pals must find a way to dismantle a chocolate cartel led by Arthur Slugworth (Paterson Joseph) and enforced by the Chief of Police (Keegan-Michael Key at his offhanded burning best).
To be clear: This is sweet stuff. This is Willy before he became the crank who sealed himself off in his factory, a happy dandy who’s optimistic and willing to help at every turn. But so was Paddington, and to King’s credit he once again manages to be sweet but never saccharine. The stellar cast understands the alchemy in that balance and never puts a foot wrong. Grant’s turn as Lofty the Oompa-Loompa is a prime example, pitched to bitchy-yet-genuine. Joseph and Colman know exactly how much scenery to chew. Yes, it’s a musical, and Neil Hannon’s songs are love them or hate them affairs. The best parts of the film come when no one’s singing, when we can just fall into the fantastical space and revel in the hilarious set pieces: Farnaby has a brilliant moment eating a chocolate that mimics a perfect night out, the hair-replacing eclairs work cross-species (this is editing magic, people), Davis “showing her some leg” will never get old, and Mathew Baynton’s gag reflex for greedy chocolatier Ficklegruber when he hears the word “poor” is extra shady given how ironic it is. Wonka, a not-so-subtle middle finger to capitalism, is one of Warner Bros. few recent projects that hasn’t been pulled from platforms or outright killed so the shareholders of its parent media cartel member could get richer. Roasted!
If there’s a knock on Wonka it’s that it loses steam entering the final stretch, and strains for every last ounce of momentum as the bad guys get theirs and Noodle finds her family. We know Willy is never in any real danger – he builds a damn factory – so the final act is plodding at times. And there was really no need to make it into a Disney-esque musical. Aside from maybe “Scrub Scrub” the songs are mostly unremarkable – one is lifted straight from Stuart’s film – and well cast though Chalamet is, he’s a serviceable singer at best. That said he’s infinitely better than whatever Russell Crowe was doing with those warbly noises in Les Misérables. At least he looks awake. But in the end none of that can truly hurt the goodwill Wonka earns on its march to being the best Willy Wonka movie to date. Consider holiday season officially open. — DEK