Photo © Warner Bros
Wonka
Timothée Chalamet in 'Wonka'
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) ranks with The Wizard of Oz among beloved children’s movies with which adults can grow old. In Roald Dahl’s adaptation of his own story, a few musical numbers are scattered amidst the satire of greed and media manipulation. Tim Burton took a sharp turn on it with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), darkening the tone and casting Johnny Depp in the lead role as Willy Wonka. Gene Wilder, star of the original Willy Wonka, condemned Burton-Depp’s depiction in no uncertain terms. (I think Dahl might have liked it.)
Timothée Chalamet tries his hand as the mischievous chocolatier in the latest version, Wonka. The foreshortened name is apt because, as the story begins, Will doesn’t have his chocolate factory yet. Wonka is a prequel, the story of Mr. Wonka’s youth. Chalamet portrays a dreamy lad, a song on his lips as he shimmies down the mast of a ship in the opening scene. Yes, like the 1971 classic, it’s a musical, and Chalamet cuts a colorful figure, twirling a walking stick and clad in top hat, purple coat, flame-stitched waistcoat and striped trousers.
Arriving in a European city, a fantasy composite of London, Paris and Vienna in a circa 1935 setting, Willy expects to become king of chocolate in a day. And why not, he insists: he has a dream (“Every good thing in this world started with a dream,” his mother told him) and recipes for wonderful things—a giraffe milk macaroon, a candy bar made with “vanilla from the markets of Manilla.” And beside all that, he’s a magician who can light a candle by blowing on it and pour a glass of hot chocolate from his high hat.
However, Willy meets steep challenges on the way to his happy ending. He’s tricked by unscrupulous landlords, Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Coleman) and Mr. Bleacher (Tom Davis), into a signing a lease whose fine print runs longer than a Torah scroll. To his dismay, he discovers that he owes 10,000 sovereigns for a single night’s lodging and must work off the debt as an indentured servant in Scrubbit’s laundry. Her mean spirits are barely concealed by her smiling, Cockney affability; the thuggish Bleacher is her enforcer.
And then there is the chocolate cartel run by an unctuous trio, Messrs. Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas) and Fickelgruber (Matthew Baynton). The candy kingpins are threatened by the high quality of Willy’s wares and are in league with a corrupt police chief (Keeagan-Michael Key) who will use all means necessary to maintain the cartel’s chocolate monopoly. Willy should have been warned. One of the first things he sees in the city is a posted notice of an ordinance against daydreaming.
Chalamet will inevitably be overshadowed in contrast to the incomparable Gene Wilder, yet he gives it a go as an earnest, likeable fellow. His moral sensibility is set early on when gives his second last coin to a homeless single mother and his luftmensch character is established by accidently dropping his last coin down a sewer grate. He teams up with fellow laundry inmate Noodle (Calah Lane), a young girl whose skepticism was forged in adversity but who is won over by Willy’s charm and determination.
British director Paul King (Paddington) cowrote the amusing screenplay with his collaborator Simon Farnaby and retained author Roald Dahl’s distrust of authority figures and the manipulation of marketing. Wonka’s songs (by The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon) are catchy, some of them hinting at klezmer, and will doubtlessly become the basis for a Broadway show now that the movie has raced to the top of the box office on opening weekend.
