Review: Wonka

This hilarious and spellbinding musical the perfect family film for this holiday season. The mix of brightly coloured visuals, incredibly catchy songs, and a genuinely suspenseful but kid-friendly story makes it the perfect family film.

There is a moment in this movie where Wonka is hatching a plan to save the day and one of his friends says that it won’t work because the world just isn’t like that! Wonka replies that it doesn’t matter, because we’re going to change the world…

The cast is effortlessly entertaining. Chalamet truly embodies Willy Wonka. He brings a fresh take to the character which was more than welcome. Chalamet brings a young and optimistic persona to Wonka, incorporating elements of Wilder’s cheerful glee, but choosing to leave the more maniacal and twisted parts of the character. Wonka is nothing but sincere, happy, and a genuinely good and honest person for the entire runtime. Some would argue this flattens the depth that the character had—where he was revealed to be unstable and sometimes crazy in other adaptions—but I’d argue Chalamet makes this work excellently.

Wonka feels like a true friend, who always stands by doing the right thing, but isn’t afraid to be cleverly cheeky in the execution of his plan. This is embodied through Chalamet’s exuberant yet heartfelt performance feels totally believable. Every moment he’s on screen, who believe that he really is Willy Wonka. He walks with this certain lightness in his step, and a twinkle in his eye, that conveys he always has a trick up his sleeve, but that most of all he always retains hope. I was upside by how charmed I was by the portrayal, mostly because much of it comes from his interaction with the supporting cast.

The supporting cast adds a richness to the story, giving Wonka friends to relate to, and heightening the stakes of the story. Many of the backstories set up have an amazing emotional payoff at the end. Paul King again proving that he can get an audience teary eyed at a heartfelt and magical story.

Even better, its thematic discussions are relevant and cleverly handled. Wonka faces rival chocolateriers who don’t want their chocolate shops compete with his obviously better chocolates. In doing so, the film deals with issues around corporate greed, as the villains plot plans to force Wonka out through various corrupt ploys. It goes so far as to dub this a “chocolate cartel”, and for a second I was checking whether this was a microeconomics 101 class. A brilliantly executed satire of economic collusion told in a kid-friendly manner.

Of course I have to mention the brilliant songs. This film is a musical, unmistakably. There are numerous musical numbers, mostly led by Chalamet but others too. And all of them are spellbinding, entertaining, and at times, genuinely tear-jerking. They are exuberantly performed, but whip-fast inventive direction by Paul King, and some of the most creative transitions and pans you’ve ever seen. King has so much fun with the magical elements of Wonka’s creations, using light, space and movement very creative to craft musical numbers that feel like their dancing and whirling around you in real-life. The writing of some of the songs, notably, A World of Your Own, A Hatful of Dreams, and You’ve Never Had Chocolate Like This is outstanding. The songs tell an endearing story, lend themselves wonderfully to visual storytelling, and are at one moment hilarious, and then heartfelt. I felt swept away multiple times during musical numbers.

Finally, the most wonderful thing about Wonka is how true it remains to the core message of the original story. Rather than overcomplicating itself with easter eggs and references to the past films, it simply takes the core essence of them and applies it in spades. Willy Wonka was always about finding good people that do the right thing. That’s what Wonka searched for in Charlie Bucket — an honest, genuinely good person to be his successor. And Wonka has the same core message in its heart. Each emotional arc is tied together by people’s supporting each other through kindness and sharing the things they love.

A delightful film that I was so pleasantly surprised by! Thanks to Universal Pictures Australia and Warner Bros. Pictures Australia for the Sydney Premiere!

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