Wonka

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant, Paterson Joseph, Keegan-Michael Key, Jim Carter, Matt Lucas, Matthew Baynton, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson

Director: Paul King

Based on characters created by Roald Dahl

Willy Wonka (Chalamet) has arrived with a pocketful of change and big aspirations to set up his own chocolate shop in the famed Galeries Gourmet. His magical chocolatey confections and showmanship quickly catch the eyes (and taste buds) of the other chocolatiers Slugworth (Joseph), Fickelgruber (Baynton) and Prodnose (Lucas). Sensing Wonka as a threat to their monopoly, they bribe the corrupt local police chief (Key) to run Wonka out of town. Wonka refuses to let them stand in the way and along with orphan Noodle (Lane) works to overthrow the men and live out his dream.

I'll get this out of the way right now, I think both of the Paddington movies are perfectly fine but the hype around them is overblown. So my enthusiasm for another film from director Paul King may be lower than most. Couple that with a trailer that really did nothing for me, one would expect me to not fall for Wonka's whimsical charms.

I did ultimately have fun with the movie even though I am not entirely convinced the movie needed to exist because who exactly was clamoring for a story that demystifies the character of Wonka? It's a full-blown musical, with many large-scale song and dance numbers to fill out the movies runtime. The songs could have been catchier, as I don't think there are any I really remember outside of the Oompa Loompa song or "Pure Imagination". That doesn't mean they were bad necessarily, just not as memorable as they could have been.

The tone of the movie is much more like Paddington than either of Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp's versions of Dahl story. Wilder's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory especially is much darker and almost nightmarish in some scenes. This is much more family-friendly and gives no real indication when Wonka decided to embrace his darker side. There are some jokes that don't work well, such as the subplot with Keegan-Michael Key's police inspector growing increasingly large the more chocolate he eats. It's not funny and is ultimately unnecessary to the plot of the movie. The fact that his character is being bribed with chocolate is enough. We didn't need to see the aftermath.

The majority of my lack of enthusiasm around the trailer was centered on Chalamet, who looked like he was trying way too hard to be quirky. He was actually pretty decent in the movie even though he does veer into the type of acting I was worried about a couple times. His singing isn't the strongest but it didn't have to be and he has really good chemistry with Calah Lane, who steals the movie from everyone. Hugh Grant's controversial casting as an Oompa Loompa doesn't overshadow the movie that much, as he maybe has ten minutes of actual screen time in the movie.

While I don't think the movie is destined to become a classic like Wilder's version, this was still a diverting time at the cinema that families can enjoy.

Grade: B-