The charming Wonka wisely understands that Roald Dahl characters don’t need much backstory.
Is there any phrase more chilling in Hollywood these days than origin story? It’s a term most often attached to comic-book movies, a bottling of the oft-tragic backstories that launch ordinary characters into superheroism. But in recent years, the industry has grown obsessed with giving everyone an origin story. We had to learn what made Maleficent hate Sleeping Beauty, what dalmatians did to turn Cruella so grumpy; apparently, it was even important to find out why Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe was so obsessed with dice rolls. So pardon me for shuddering upon hearing that a blockbuster musical would explain exactly how Roald Dahl’s beloved character Willy Wonka became a master chocolatier.
I say all of this to underline just how surprised I was to find Wonka, Paul King’s new film starring Timothée Chalamet in the title role, a total delight. Perhaps I should have granted King more leeway, given his work making the two Paddington movies, both excellent exercises in British whimsy that won over audiences with great character acting and charming sincerity. But the idea of taking Dahl’s character—already at the center of two separate Hollywood extravaganzas that adapted the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory—and finding some unique angle on his newly invented “origins” sounded like a fool’s errand to me. How wrong I was.
What King and his co-writer, Simon Farnaby (the duo also co-wrote Paddington 2), wisely understand is that characters such as Wonka don’t need much explanation. In Dahl’s novels, they sprout up as fully formed creatures of mad delight, all the more delightful because of how inexplicable their existence seems. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its sequel, Willy Wonka is somehow a successful business owner despite his many eccentricities and his apathy toward health-and-safety standards; his achievements are basically a form of chaos magic.
Read: Willy Wonka, technology critic
So I certainly had no interest in understanding how Wonka got good at making chocolate that tastes wonderful while also changing your shape, size, color, or relationship to the laws of gravity. Here’s the great news: Neither does Paul King. Wonka presents the chocolatier at an earlier phase of his career, as he’s looking to break into the industry, but he’s already a sing-songy elfin creature who seems to have stepped out of a candy dimension. The tall, spindly, forever baby-faced Chalamet has the physicality for the role, and he’s never attempted something quite so sincere before; the closest comparison is probably his excellent heartthrob work in Little Women, though Wonka is going for a much more childlike tone.
Whether you can jibe with Chalamet’s airy guilelessness, and thin (but sweet) singing voice will probably make the difference between liking and loving Wonka. There’s a lot to enjoy besides the star: King understands the power of a good ensemble, so once again he’s stacked the deck with superb comic actors. The plot sees young Wonka arriving in an unnamed European city with a lot of canals that is, for whatever reason, the world center of chocolate-making. Wonka’s attempts to win over crowds with free samples angers a trio of candy CEOs (played by a preening Paterson Joseph, a doltish Matt Lucas, and Matthew Baynton as a man who gags if he even hears the word poor) who wage a business war against their newest rival.
King has essentially created a stealth Paddington sequel in his framing of the story: Wonka, like that little talking bear, absorbs slings and arrows as he attempts to bring everyone aboard with good spirits and humane generosity. Yes, he has cartoon villains to surmount, like the three choco-rivals; a corrupt cop (Keegan-Michael Key); a dodgy priest (Rowan Atkinson); and a cruel landlady named Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman, having a blast), who forces her tenants into indentured servitude. But Wonka collects a gaggle of allies as well, including a plucky kid called Noodle (Calah Lane), a wise accountant named Abacus Crunch (Jim Carter), and, most crucial, a sardonic Oompa-Loompa named Lofty (a pitch-perfect, CGI-shrunken Hugh Grant).
The joy of Wonka comes from watching Wonka and his pals snowball into success, even in the face of deep adversity. King’s films have the unshakable viewpoint that the world’s cynics can be either won over or pushed aside with optimistic force. That might feel ludicrous given the actual state of the world, but Chalamet’s cheery performance, a bunch of charming songs by the Irish pop singer Neil Hannon, and the loudly designed landscapes are more than enough to sell the quirkiness. Wonka is saccharine, yes, but if you’re going to indulge, it’s better to be in the hands of a master confectioner.
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An Origin Story That’s Actually Fun
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15.12.2023
The charming Wonka wisely understands that Roald Dahl characters don’t need much backstory.
Is there any phrase more chilling in Hollywood these days than origin story? It’s a term most often attached to comic-book movies, a bottling of the oft-tragic backstories that launch ordinary characters into superheroism. But in recent years, the industry has grown obsessed with giving everyone an origin story. We had to learn what made Maleficent hate Sleeping Beauty, what dalmatians did to turn Cruella so grumpy; apparently, it was even important to find out why Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe was so obsessed with dice rolls. So pardon me for shuddering upon hearing that a blockbuster musical would explain exactly how Roald Dahl’s beloved character Willy Wonka became a master chocolatier.
I say all of this to underline just how surprised I was to find Wonka, Paul King’s new film starring Timothée Chalamet in the title role, a total delight. Perhaps I should have granted King more leeway, given his work making the two Paddington movies, both excellent exercises in British whimsy that won over audiences with great character acting and charming sincerity. But the idea of taking Dahl’s........
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