‘Wonka’ Review: The Movie to Watch This Holiday Season
The Warner Bros. marketing department may not be interested in letting the audience know Wonka is a musical, but Paul King doesn’t let 30 seconds go by of his delicious and sweet new piece of candy before he unleashes a force of nature known as Timothée Chalamet on us — and he’s singing and dancing now. No amount of words can accurately describe Chalamet’s charm and charisma as a young Willy Wonka, who immediately wins our hearts with his first musical number that starts at the top of a boat, eager and hungry to take the city by storm.
By the time the song ends, though, he’s already spent all his money thanks to his goodwill and naïveté and will find himself sleeping on a cold bench on the street, with the certainty that this will be his last night in misery, because tomorrow, he will be a rich man thanks to the irresistible and undeniable chocolate he can create. Instead of going through a revelatory character arc over the next two hours, young Willy will convince the entire city to look on the bright side, to think positively, and to be generous with each other.
It’s not just that Wonka is the best big-screen adaptation of Roald Dahl’s character yet — the film leaves the previous two as a distant memory. Paul King delivered here another instant classic of the family movie genre, a giant teddy bear that is hard to let go of but that also contains a deep story underneath its cotton candy wrapping. And that’s thanks to no shortage of delicious ingredients, from its jaw-dropping production design to the infectious sing-and-dance numbers to the lovable cast that populates every single frame of the film with pure joy and enthusiasm that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.
(L-R) Tom Davis, Olivia Colman, and Timothée Chalamet in Paul King’s “Wonka”.
After young Willy lays down on that bench, he’s approached by a rough-looking man named Bleacher (Tom Davis), who offers him a bed for the night. Willy can’t pay him yet, but he’s so certain his chocolate will be a giant hit, he accepts with no second thought. Olivia Colman‘s Mrs. Scrubbit is Bleacher’s partner in crime, who runs the inn where Willy will be sleeping, and who is waiting with a catty smile. The next morning, he goes to the city’s market and starts advertising himself like only Willy Wonka can do: with a big musical number and a show of the wonderful mysteries that his chocolate hides. Those who try it start to levitate immediately after; first in their minds, and then their feet literally get off the ground.
Before they do, though, Willy meets the antagonists of the story, the chocolate cartel that has taken the city hostage. They are the leaders of the three big chocolate companies who are in control of everything and everyone, including Keegan-Michael Key‘s chief of police. Leave it to Paul King to create a PG mafia organization and actually make it work. But, bribed by the sight of hundreds of boxes of chocolates, Key’s character soon starts a relentless hunt against Willy Wonka, who is forced back into the inn he’s sleeping in with no money and no hope to make any. Bleacher and Mrs. Scrubbit definitely are no fans of that prospect, which is why they force him to start working for them, along with a crew of people who were in Wonka’s situation in the past.
From the basement of a guest-less inn, Willy Wonka aided by his newfound friends, and in particular, a little girl called Noodle (first-timer Calah Lane), will figure out how to rise to the top. And he, much like Paul King, will leave no food on the plate. The beauty of the story is that Willy lifts everyone up around him and gives them an arc, and vice versa. His goodness and generosity are not going away, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have a proper arc.
Timothée Chalamet and Paul King on the set of “Wonka”.
His journey of self-discovery is connected to his now-deceased mother (Sally Hawkins), who taught him how to make chocolate and see the good side of everyone. Wonka, the film and the character, are preoccupied with everyone around him and are careful enough to grant every character their moment to shine. But Paul King seems to know what he’s doing; his and Simon Farnaby‘s script is also very careful to give Chalamet’s character the best moments in the movie, and the most poignant scenes as well.
Wonka is the perfect combination of a director with a specific vision for the look and feel of the story that a very smart script is trying to tell, along with an extremely talented actor at the lead who will charm everyone in the audience. It packs in big setpieces and bombastic showcases of filmmaking, but it really peaks when it’s a story about family, whether it’s the one you were born into, or found along the way. It’s a musical, yes, with memorable songs and irresistible dance numbers, but it’s so much more than that.
Wonka is currently playing in theaters.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
