[Film Review] Wonka (2023)

The role of Roald Dahl’s fantastically quirky chocolatier has changed hands from Gene Wilder in Mel Stuart’s WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971) to Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (2005). Now it is our twinkie heartthrob Timothée Chalamet who takes the mantle in Paul King’s WONKA.

A sort of prequel relating Wonka’s earlier days, Paul King’s film, as expected, a scrumptious, varicolored confection for a whole family’s hearty devouring, especially during the holidays. Wonka is new in town, falls victim of the servitude to a wicked Mrs. Scrubitt (Colman) and is unwarrantably persecuted by the local chocolate cartel (a triad of Joseph, Lucas and Baynton), in cahoots with corrupt chief of police (Key, later in a fat suit as his intake of chocolate soars) who has a sweet tooth. Eliciting the help from the downtrodden, including an orphan girl Noodle (Lane), Wonka is going to right the wrongs in the most spectacular way, setbacks are duly down the road, but please rest assured that his chipper spirit can never dim, not least because he is incentivized by genuine friendship (including Hugh Grant’s “diminutive orange man”, a foe-to-friend Oompa-Loompa whose funny bone is what the film hurts for) and aided by sheer magic (a viewer must discard any disbelief of the logistic work behind Wonka’s sumptuous manufacturing).

What audience hasn’t been primed is that the film, like its predecessors, is indeed a musical, a marketing cop-out that becomes peculiarly prominent from the Hollywood mill presently. “Oompa Loompa” and “Pure Imagination” from Stuart’s film are divertingly reprised. While Chalamet’s voice isn’t his strong suit, his renditions are surprisingly felicitous, or he manages to make them look charmingly frictionless, especially, the new theme song “A World of Your Own”, penned by Neil Hannon, an affirmative and moony ear-worm of its own vitality.

Now comes the debit side, for all WONKA’s alchemical grandeur and levitation stunts, and the cast’s concerted effort to be earnestly charming and festive, when that oceanic amount of chocolate freshet surges, King’s film reaches the event horizon of cloying surplus, almost zaps one’s appetite for consumption of any sweets. Also, Willy Wonka’s distinct idiosyncrasy is totally effaced, Chalamet’s young Wonka bears neither Wilder’s eccentric mystique nor Depp’s dainty otherworldliness, he is an anonymous hero with a bland goodwill and a painful pining for his mother (Hawkins is exceptionally compelling and heartwarming in her scanty screen time), an endearing confectioner who can woo the lowest common denominator, and if this is the purpose, WONKA more than hits the mark.

referential entries: Paul King’s PADDINGTON (2014, 6.1/10), PADDINGTON 2 (2017, 7.2/10); Mel Stuart’s WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971, 7.1/10).

Title: Wonka

Year: 2023

Country: USA, UK, Canada

Language: English

Genre: Adventure, Musical, Family, Comedy

Director: Paul King

Screenwriters: Paul King, Simon Farnaby

Based on the characters created by Roald Dahl

Music: Joby Talbot

Cinematography: Chung Chung-hoon

Editor: Mark Everson

Cast:

Timothée Chalamet

Calah Lane

Hugh Grant

Olivia Colman

Tom Davis

Keegan-Michael Key

Paterson Joseph

Matt Lucas

Mathew Baynton

Jim Carter

Natasha Rothwell

Rich Fulcher

Rakhee Thakrar

Sally Hawkins

Rowan Atkinson

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Freya Parker

Phil Wang

Charlotte Ritchie

Simon Farnaby

Ellie White

Rating: 7.2/10