Wonka – Review

Wonka – Review
116 Minutes, Rated PG
Written by Simon Farnaby, Paul King (basaed on the works of Roald Dahl)
Directed by Paul King

**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below, then listen or watch as he and Ryan discuss the film in more depth (along with bonus talk about The Color Purple).  Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**

Synopsis:

With dreams of opening a shop in a city renowned for its chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers.

Based on the extraordinary character at the center of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wonka tells the wondrous story of how the world’s greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker became the beloved Willy Wonka we know today.

With dreams of opening a shop in a city renowned for its chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers.

After the disastrous re-imagining of the Roald Dahl classic by Tim Burton in 2005, Hollywood is back for another bite at the candied apple in this Paul King-led effort at giving us the backstory of the world’s greatest chocolatier: Willy Wonka.

Played by Hollywood’s current it-boy, Timothee Chalamet, Willy Wonka is an idealistic chocolate magician intent not on making his fortune, but rather on completing the dream he shared with his mother.

Here’s the first big difference between this version and Burton’s version: Burton’s Wonka had father issues, while here, director Paul King has a Wonka who had no father but was raised by his mother before ultimately losing her and then devoting his time to becoming as good a chocolatier as she was.

The film is a colorful blast of cinematic cotton candy, but its weak spots are actually the songs. Whatever you might think of Chalamet’s singing chops, I found the songs to be largely bland and unremarkable both lyrically and musically.

The supporting cast of characters is somewhat interesting, especially Keegan-Michael Keys’ chocoholic Chief of Police, but overall, the story here isn’t anything spectular. The numerous pre-Easter eggs (PREaster Eggs?) serve to remind the audience how magical the original 1971 film truly was.

And do not get me started on the whole “Hugh Grant is an Oompa-Loompa” thing. That absolutely does NOT work for me.

So while generally entertaining overall, this Wonka is far from the world’s greatest.
Wonka is in theaters tomorrow, December 15, and stars Timothee Chalamet, Olivia Colman, Calah Lane, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton, Jim Carter, Rakhee Thakrar, Freya Parker, Hugh Grant, and Keegan-Michael Key.

And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.

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