‘Wonka’ review: An everlasting showstopper

Starring Timothée Chalamet, Paul King’s ‘Wonka’ prequel may be a different flavor from the Gene Wilder original, but it’s every bit as sweet.

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Wonka is a strange movie, which is why I feel no trepidation in unironically declaring it the best Disney movie of 2023, even though it’s from Warner Bros. Sorry Disney, Paul King did a better job at capturing that Disney magic of yours on your 100th anniversary, all by essentially making a Mary Poppins movie that makes your 2019 Mary Poppins sequel look sickeningly plain by comparison. And to be clear, Paul King did this with a pseudo-prequel to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, it’s not like the studio system dealt him a promising hand, here.

But that’s sort of what makes Paul King “King” of making lemonade without lemons. The magician of a man pulled it off twice with Paddington, and seconds into Wonka you can just tell that this is a sorcerer at work, peeling off the layers of expectations that go into a film attempting to recapture the whimsical edge of Mel Stuart’s landmark 1971 film and effortlessly merge it with the amped-up artistry of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel with just the healthiest sprinkling of mid-century musical magic.

Yes, Wonka is a musical, much more so than the original film in fact, and it’s a masterstroke of a creative decision. Of course it’s a musical. It couldn’t have been anything but a musical, especially once you listen to the music (with original songs by Neil Hannon). Because unlike pretty much every other musical made by a big studio over the last few years, the music here is uproariously good and not trying to rip off Lin-Manuel Miranda. I’m looking at you, Wish (and even some films Miranda has worked on, but nevertheless).

“You see, I’m something of a magician.”

Co-written by King and Simon Farnaby, the film follows Timothée Chalamet as —you guessed it — Willy Wonka, a young but wildly talented chocolatier/magician/entrepreneur who arrives on the shores of a fictional version of London where half the population inexplicably has either the most British accent or the most American accent (not a complaint, as this only lends further bones to this being a delirious musical fantasy). Wonka has pretty much no money to his name and only a “hatful of dreams” as he faces obstacle after obstacle in trying to create a name for himself, even before he has a chance to sell a single chocolate.

At one point the man even has to contend with a murderous chocolate “cartel” and even corporate slavery. So yes, Wonka is anything but subtle in its commentary, while still maintaining its veneer of kid-friendly charm — of which it drowns in. Wonka mostly makes enemies along the way, with too many delicious roles to properly credit, but perhaps most notably Olivia Colman as a conniving innkeeper and Paterson Joseph as a fiercely sinister rival chocolatier. But he also collects some fast friends as well, including Noodle (newcomer Calah Lane), a scrappy orphan who helps Wonka find ways to dodge the town’s corrupt police force led by Keegan-Michael Key and equally corrupt Catholic Church run by “chocoholic” priests, the leader of whom involves a cameo I wouldn’t dare spoil.

“Who wants a chocolate that makes you fly?”

Wonka is one of those rare movies where it’s clear much of the cast — which includes Paddington alums like Hugh Grant and Sally Hawkins — believed in the director’s uncanny vision for this wickedly weird little movie from the start and never wavered, even during its more annoying nonsensical bits. Granted, this movie is not supposed to make any literal sense, but it’s hard to avoid asking obvious questions throughout, especially ones relating to the economics of Wonka’s “traveling briefcase factory,” which is so capable at solving all of his problems, it’s no wonder King had to write in so many plot points to make his little victories seem farfetched.

But at times it’s sort of like watching a bizarro version of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (yes, Harry Potter veteran David Heyman co-produced Wonka), but if Newt Scamander was an engaging, compelling character and the magic of that world felt fresh, exciting, and fun. Who knew? Chalamet is not an actor I typically clamor for, as many of his previous roles have ranged from hilariously staged (The French Dispatch) and knowingly obtuse (Lady Bird) to frustratingly one-note (Dune) and needlessly restrained (Bones and All). At the very least, he’s always been a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re going to get — and in this case, we got Chalamet at his nuttiest.

The bottom line.

The performance fails whenever Chalamet tries to do little more than superficially mimic Wilder, but thankfully, he doesn’t make this attempt too often. Perhaps you can parse out which scenes they shot first by noting the times when Chalamet pulled the throttle hardest on channeling Wilder, only to settle into a groove that is more him later on. Maybe that’s the secret ingredient to Wonka, after all. It doesn’t matter how much the film compares to a film from 50 years ago. It matters what it wants to be now both in and out of conversation with that film’s longtime fans.

It’s not a virtue to be different for the sake of it — see Tim Burton’s 2005 take on the material — but King manages to set his film apart in tone and style while still capturing that core emotional message. The spiritual truth behind what made Dahl’s original story so purely imaginative. Movies, like candy, are better when shared with others. And sampling Paul King’s latest movie somehow feels like experiencing chocolate like you’re a kid all over again.

Wonka opens in theaters on December 8 in the UK and December 15 in the United States. Watch the trailer here.

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Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Read more articles by Jon Negroni here.