Happy New Year everyone. I will have my official 2023 wrap-up next week with my top movies of the year, but first one more review for this year. To end the year, my family and I finally made it back out to the theater to watch “Wonka.” This delightful and whimsical movie is based on the character by Roald Dahl and directed by Paul King (the man behind the Paddington movies). But first, let me get the official spoiler warning out of the way. If you don’t want to spoil the movie, much like ruining your dinner by eating chocolate before your meal, please read no further. In the meantime, be sure to check out other reviews here. Otherwise, come with me and you’ll read a review of this film’s evaluation!
Those that are reading on, thanks for continuing with this adventure with me. I will start by talking about Timothée Chalamet. I hadn’t seen a ton of his work, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I can easily say that they picked the perfect person to play a young Willy Wonka. Both the mannerisms and the speech patterns were very similar to that of either of the first two movies with Wonka as a character. Whether you compare him to Gene Wilder’s original portrayal in 1971’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” or the more recent take by Johnny Depp in 2005’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. But more on that later.
The film starts with Chalamet’s Wonka arriving in Europe to try to sell his chocolates at a place called the Galeries Gourmet. This is a place he has dreamed of visiting ever since he was a little boy, and his mother would make him homemade chocolate. However, he finds it more difficult to open a shop here than he hoped. With the “Chocolate Cartel” in town, they make every attempt to stop him since they know his chocolate is better than theirs and they fear what he may do to their business if he succeeds.
As good as Chalamet is in this role, the real charm of the movie comes from the endless number of side characters that he meets along the way. The first of which is Olivia Coleman as Mrs. Scrubitt and Tom Davis as Bleacher as they trick him into signing a contract full of fine print that leads to him owing them quite a bit of money. Since he doesn’t have anything to pay them, they dump him down the laundry shoot where he must work off his debts. Here he meets the next group of characters which I enjoyed quite a bit. Abacus Crunch (Jim Carter), Lottie Bell (Rakhee Thakrar), Piper Benz (Natasha Rothwell), Larry Chucklesworth (Rich Fulcher), and most importantly Noodle (Calah Lane) are all forced to work off their debts to Scrubitt and Bleacher in a prison-like lifestyle.
Willy’s adventurous and positive personality doesn’t keep him confined for long. He enlists the help of Noodle to sneak into the city each day to share his vision and chocolate with the locals. This is where the movie takes a fun and suspenseful turn. Eventually, he recruits the help of everyone to assist him in escapades and soon they are making a huge splash around town as they eventually make enough money to open a shop.
Again, he is side-lined and tricked at every turn by the “Chocolate Cartel” as they have ”sweetly” persuaded the local Chief of Police (Keegan-Michael Key) and Father Julius (Rowan Atkinson) at the church, which is just a big front for the cartel. Another great part of this movie is Hugh Grant playing an Oompa-Loompa known as Lofty. He fits right into the slot just like he was pulled from the 1971 film. Eventually, this all comes to a head and they all have to work together to try and steal the evidence against the cartel. Lofty literally flies in at the last second to save Wonka and Noodle and the cartel are taken to justice along with the others who were working with them.
“Wonka” is an amusing movie with lots to see and plenty of great characters to watch. It had more singing than I thought it would, but I’m not sure why since the other two films did as well. So, heads up if you’re not into that sort of thing. I’m not, but the songs did a good job of moving the story along. The biggest question I left the theater with was “Is this a prequel to Gene Wilder’s Wonka or Johnny Depp’s Wonka”? I think it could go either way based on what I was able to pick up from this movie but would have to lean more toward the 1971 version. This is solely based on just my opinion, but since we didn’t get any history of his dad being a dentist as Depp’s character provided, I would be more inclined to look more towards Wilder’s version of Wonka as the Willy of choice. However, it’s a fun standalone movie either way even though a direct tie-in would have enhanced it a bit for me… maybe seeing Charlie Bucket’s grandpa in town asking for a job or something.
Overall, this was a fun time and a definite must-see film if you enjoyed either of the other two Willy Wonka movies. For me, it seemed to be missing something, but not enough to ruin it. I give it a tasteful 7 out of 10!
