One cold morning, a mysterious young man arrives in an anonymous metropolis. His name is Willy Wonka. A bit of a magician, he is above all a prodigiously gifted chocolatier. Unfortunately, at the Galeries Gourmet where he dreams of running a shop, a chocolate cartel is rampant with the complicity of the authorities. As if that wasn’t enough, Willy finds himself the prisoner of a dishonest manager. Fortunately, he can count on a few friends in misfortune who will help him realize his dream. Based on the character created by Roald Dahl in his novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie and the chocolate factory), musical comedy Wonka (VF) is a story of origins.
As you will remember, Roald Dahl’s work was adapted twice for the cinema: in 1971, with Gene Wilder, and in 2005, with Johnny Depp. It’s Timothée Chalamet’s turn to play the eccentric Willy Wonka.
First observation: in this pre-episode, the character does not have the ambivalent, sometimes borderline worrying side beneath the wacky surface, of the novel and the adaptations. This Willy is resolutely kind, devoted, and extremely naive. Purists will frown, but in the context of the film, this rereading works. What’s more, the star of Call Me by Your Name (Call me by your name) and of Dune: Part One (Dune. First part) lacks neither charm nor charisma.
For memory, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tells how, in order to find a successor, Willy Wonka shows children around his factory. With the exception of one nice boy, Charlie, everyone is “punished” for their bad behavior. In this regard, you should know that Roald Dahl willingly colors the morals of his stories with black humor and cruelty.
Which brings us to the second observation. Namely that we have watered down the “Dahlian” tone by making it, without a bad pun, much sweeter. But again, it’s in line with the rereading of the character.
High sugar level
In this case, with its orphan girl with secret origins (touching Calah Lane), her wicked jailer (tasty Olivia Colman), her municipal corruption and her Victorian backdrop, Wonka seems to come more from the imagination of Charles Dickens than from that of Roald Dahl. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as you know what to expect.
From setbacks to small victories, Willy pushes the song: if not powerful, Timothée Chalamet’s voice is pleasant and fair. The songs are, that said, hardly memorable. In fact, the movie would be better without it.
For a musical, this is a harsh observation.
Two numbers, however, are very funny: the one where the rival chocolatiers bribe the “chocoholic” police chief and the one where the Oompa Loompa, a sort of miniature human (hilarious but too brief Hugh Grant), performs his traditional dance. In either case, we laugh heartily.
On the technical side, Wonka is also a success. Everything from the art direction to the costumes to the photo direction seduces the eye.
On production, Paul King, responsible for the two marvelous Paddingyour, maintains a good pace and unsurprisingly proves very comfortable with fanciful elements. However, a few notes of bitterness would not have hurt: less marshmallow and more cocoa.