Wonka (2023)

A Film Review by Vivian Berk

Director: Paul King

Writers: Simon Farnaby and Paul King

Inspired by characters from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl

Cast: Timothée Chalamet (Willy Wonka), Calah Lane (Noodle), Keegan-Michael Key (Chief of Police), Paterson Joseph (Arthur Slugworth), Rowan Atkinson (Father Julius), Hugh Grant (Lofty the Oompa Loompa)

“Gene Wilder had a ‘twinkle in his eye’, so I guess that excuses the fact that Willy Wonka is basically a serial killer.” This quote comes from a friend of mine who harbors a deep-seated hatred of the movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (1971) and the novel it's based on. I am now tempted to ask her how she’d feel about last year’s “Wonka," an origin story that presents a young Willy Wonka as a plucky underdog who shakes up the chocolate industry’s status quo which has been ruthlessly controlling the market for decades and brings joy to everyone he meets.

I don’t harbor the same distaste for Wonka as my friend and have watched the 1971 classic starring the iconic Gene Wilder numerous times and to this day often find myself singing the lyrics to the song “Pure Imagination” but concede there is no getting around the fact that the story has a deep running mean streak that’s even more pronounced in Dahl’s original novel. As a child watching this movie, you’re either won over by Wilder’s mischievous charm or terrified of the events that transpire in his factory. It is a classic morality tale, wherein the boy who follows the rules and is nice gets rewarded, while naughty children are punished in ways that, while not as severe as a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, are surely traumatic for them and their accompanying parents. I don’t know, but sit down with the parents may have been more beneficial to those children than a trip through Wonka’s chocolate factory.  

That being said, this latest spin of the "Chocolate Factory" character and mythos (should I use such a lofty word for this series?) aims not to pass judgment on characters, but to be something much sweeter. For one thing, I applaud Wonka for being a family movie musical that wastes no time getting to the songs as we’re immediately introduced to Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) through song as he sails into port, ready to sell the chocolates after seven years perfecting his craft abroad. Director and co-screenwriter Paul King arrives fresh off his beloved pair of Paddington movies, and the spirit of those movies is very present in his latest offering, as once again he's made about a cherry hat and coat clad protagonist and follows him through a series of colorful encounters with a wide cast of eccentric characters.

Unfortunately for the film's budding entrepreneur and street magician, his presence upsets the chocolate big shots: Slugworth, Prodnose and Fickelgruber. Together these three form what the film calls the “Chocolate Cartel”, and this cartel isn’t fooling around. They own the town, paying off the Chief of Police (Keegan-Michael Key) and Priest (Rowan Atkinson) to make sure no rivals emerge (paid off in chocolate, of course). This isn’t the only group of swindlers Wonka must face with, as he also quickly falls into the indentured servitude of a local inn/laundry service after failing to read the fine print when renting a room for the night. Now, with the help of his fellow captives to the laundry, Wonka and his new found friends in the laundry (most notably a young orphan girl named Noodle) must concoct a delicious scheme to sell enough chocolates to buy their freedom and create the greatest chocolate shop the world has ever seen.

These are the ingredients Paul King assembles for a colorful, albeit predictable romp that is sure to entertain families without offering the scares of previous Wonka films. The world is quirky in a way that feels akin to the Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts films (it is produced by longtime Potter film producer David Heyman) and features film’s songs are catchy and have fun choreography, even as they fail to capture the same catchy magic of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley in the Gene Wilder film (the film circles back to that original, ending on “Pure Imagination”).

The film’s main weakness is that Chalamet’s Willy Wonka isn’t a particularly interesting character. Unlike every previous version of the character, Chalamet doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, and I must concede, Wonka’s “children’s birthday party magician” shtick without the underlying threat that he might turn someone into a blueberry at any given moment just doesn’t leave much of an impact.

He is wide-eyed and bushy tailed master of all things candy, who never learned to read and blindly trusts everyone at their word, like a child in a grown man's body (but, it must be noted, thankfully not in the Michael Jackson-esque way Johnny Depp brought to the character in 2005). Chalamet's Wonka interacts with other characters much in the way Paddington Bear does in his films, and given the internet's love of those films (many have voiced the opinion that Paddington 2 is one of the greatest films of all-time), it makes sense why they wouldn't want to mess with that formula. However, while I love that little bear and the way he impacts the world and characters in his movies, it doesn't work as well when applied to Wonka for the simple fact that Paddington actually is a child (a cub, to be precise). We accept he behaves the way he does because he's too young to be any bit jaded or world weary. Meanwhile, Willy Wonka is a man in his mid to late 20s who approaches his ambitions like a kid opening their first lemonade stand.

While I wouldn’t go so far as my friend who described him as a serial killer, a key component to the Willy Wonka character and why he's so entrenched in pop culture is that he has mean streak beneath the whimsical façade. Watching Gene Wilder’s take on the character, it always seemed like he knew far more than he let on and had meticulously crafted every test of character he put the children touring his factory through. Chalamet’s Wonka is just nice. If he’d had one moment of anger – and the movie does give him plenty of reasons to be angry—I think it would have gone a long way connecting the 27-year-old Wonka to the man he becomes. Even the famous line “I said good day, sir!” of Wilder’s Wonka is given to the Oompa Loompa played by Hugh Grant. I don't think the film should have done a cynical story about Wonka losing his innocence, but wouldn't it have been more satisfying to see him evolve from someone everyone else can take advantage of to becoming the man who gets to deliver a "I said good day, sir" mic drop? I believe so.

Despite these quibbles I've made about the film, Paul King is undeniably a good filmmaker who has more than proven his ability to make films that delight moviegoers of all-ages. Wonka may never reach the heights of his Paddington films, but it is never boring and I doubt most audiences are looking for anything more than a pleasant family romp when they buy their tickets to see this latest adaptation of Willy Wonka. While I wish the Wonka character had a full character growth, this movie is still a smooth holiday season treat certain to amuse audiences of all ages, and reminds us that we still need big, sincere family musicals in an age of ironic detachment.

Rating: B