'Wonka' Review: Timothée Chalamet Led Candyman Prequel ...

During the end credits of one of the best movies ever made, Paddington 2, director Paul King strutted his musical theater stuff via a vibrant number with Hugh Grant singing and dancing in a pink prison uniform. Who knew that sequence was a test for his follow-up, Wonka? The family musical fantasy starring Timothée Chalamet ain’t doing that golden ticket trash again, for this is a prequel about how Willy became the factory owner monolith—and children’s version of Jigsaw—we all know and love. While King continues his whimsy streak, this picture is a bit more peanut brittle than rich chocolate, for its chaotic story is hard to gobble. 

Willy Wonka, a twenty-something candymaker and inventor, journeys to an industrial town to open a chocolate shop in its Galeries Gourmet district, a dream he inherited from his late mother (Sally Hawkins). He faces adversaries in Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas), and Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton), who are corrupt cartel owners working together to maintain their high-priced chocolate goods. He also has to deal with an evil innkeeper, Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman), and her right-hand man, Bleacher (Tom Davis), who tricks him into working as a cleaner in their underground laundry business. In this challenging environment, he befriends a young orphan named Noodle (Calah Lane), who helps him escape Mrs. Scrubbit's clutches and sell his chocolate undetected by the chocolate cartel and the corrupt chief of police (Keegan-Michael Key). 

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Aardman may have animation down pat in British family features, but Paul King rules on the live-action side. Each King production captures a classic ‘90s family film exuberance reminiscent of Peter Hewitt's The Borrowers, one of my childhood VHSes. His skillful direction from Paddington 2's finale confidently carries over to Wonka, which bears the same frivolousness as his Paddington entries while evolving his filmmaker abilities through lavish musical numbers and set pieces with glamorous sparkle. Numbers such as Willy and Noodle's duet "For a Moment" had my heart melting like hot chocolate, and a large-scaled flashy set piece, "You've Never Had Chocolate Like This," had me smiling ear to ear. Some of the original tunes provided by Neil Hannon are genuine bops with catchy lyrics and toe-tapping rhythms.

Would you look at that? Lil’ Timmy Tim can sing. We all knew that. Those “Tiny Horse” SNL sketches and musical stage productions he starred in during his LaGuardia days came in handy. Perhaps Chalamet is the most peculiar choice to embody a young Willy Wonka, considering he's more spicy than sweet in his usual roles. He has chocolatey, smooth vocal chops. Though Wonka itself delivers some callbacks from the Wilder flick with Timothée singing “Pure Imagination,” he does a good job capturing the essence of the character in a Jerry Lewis meets Gene Kelly manner. Chalamet has a high-spirited, upbeat charisma in his delivery and dancing physicality—as he did during his Mr. Timmy Tim days. 

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I adored Wonka's art direction and production design for a non-factory-based prequel. For its chocolate-centric industrial town, production designer Nathan Crowley, trading his Nolan Nuts for some Wonka Bars, elaborated a gorgeous Max Brenner meets IT’SUGAR-styled artistry, which captures Dahl's unique sardonic yet bright spirit.

Chalamet tries so hard to evoke a golly-gee innocence, but darn it, his Adam's apple is king-sized. He bears so much effortless swagger that he sounds stiff when he gets whimsical. But there's a scene where he gives Bleacher some dating advice to attract Mrs. Scrubbit for his benefit, and he sounds like the player we all know and love.

It's rare for a prequel movie to hold the same weight as its lovable source material. I'm still astounded that the best Transformers movie ever made is Bumblebee. I'll admit Wonka embodies the sarcastic, cruel, yet playful nature of Roald Dahl's tales in tone. He never sugarcoated his worlds, as everyone was full of malice, and he loved incorporating nightmare fuel. Wonka's screenplay serves the character, helping us understand who he is and why he's the most lovable candymaker in fiction. The story built around him is an incohesive compilation of Dahl attributes, Frankenstiened together to form a somewhat convoluted crime flick. 

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Everything regarding the Candy Trio cartel fell entirely flat for me. I adored Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, and Mathew Baynton as the main baddies who chew up the scenery with delightful banter. Joseph stands out by channeling his best Mr. Moseby impression as Slugworth. However, they repackaged Boggis, Bunce, and Bean stand-ins with more of a classic gangster coat. Then there's Noodle, a Matilda stand-in with a Miss Honey complex, while Colman’s Mrs. Scrubbit is Ms. Trunchbull, even down to the yellow choppers.

At a certain point, the prequel turns into a crime mystery with the wildest story contrivances that it fails to recognize a target demographic. Several creative ideas are introduced, like a Catholic church as a front for the cartel to store their goods while chocolate-addicted monks protect their hideout, but that's the stretch of its capabilities. The longer Wonka tries to open a shop, the more convoluted the crime plot becomes. When Hugh Grant's Lofty the Oompa-Loompa arrives, you get a tummy ache from how overstuffed the narrative is. 

Speaking of "overstuffed," Wonka's ‘90s fashion hit so hard that it brought back outdated fatphobic humor as a running gag. I mean, not explicitly, because the movie is sweating bullets trying its best not to make one while Keegan-Michael Key is in an enormous fat suit in every scene, and it only resorts to awkward reactionary shots.

Paul King's extravagant direction has Wonka show glimmers of pure imagination that'd make Dahl-heads happy. However, a slightly miscast Timothée Chalamet and an overly complicated story make this well-meaning family musical hard to bite into. 

Rating: 2.5/5 | 54%

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