Wonka: the perfect Christmas movie

Luca Fontana

6.12.2023

Translation: Elicia Payne

It’s an enchanting world in which Timothée Chalamet shines as the young Willy Wonka. This comes as no surprise since director Paul King has already made his two Paddington films a delight to watch at the movies.

Let me start off by saying that my review contains no spoilers. Any information stated here is featured in trailers that have already been released.

Not every back story is worth telling. Especially not when the origins are from Hollywood’s lack of ideas like when they simply fall back on what people already know. This is easier to market. And then the studio bosses build an entire cinematic universe around it. Gotta milk that cinematic cow well! That draws viewers in.

At least most of the time.

I already knew before the press screening that Wonka would be along the same lines. The first trailer seemed too generic. Too unoriginal. But lo and behold, my judgement was wrong. Not that I’m ruling out the possibility of an entire cinematic universe following. But this prequel to the 1971 classic Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory isn’t just worth telling, but also worth seeing.

This is what Wonka’s all about

Despite being so young, Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) harbours ambitious dreams. He wants nothing less than to become the greatest magician, inventor and chocolate maker in the world. So he travelled the world for seven years to perfect his skills, despite making enemies along the way... Do-ba-dee-doo.

When Wonka finally prepares to open his first store in a town world-famous for its chocolate, he faces fierce opposition from the nasty and cunning chocolate cartel. This has always ensured that chocolate remains expensive, while Wonka sells his at a ridiculously low price. Undeterred by the cartel’s attempts to compromise his creations, he relies on his ingenuity – and even a pinch or two of magic – to spread joy to the world with his chocolate.

A Christmas movie in the best, most cheesy sense

I should have really known that Wonka can’t help but warm my heart like the first sip of hot chocolate on a cold winter’s evening. After all, the film was directed by none other than Paul King. He knows how to make quirky, cheesy family films with a lot of heart, emotion and British humour. He already proved this with his two Paddington films which he also wrote the screenplays for. He borrows a lot from them in this film. For example, Paddington Bear’s naively positive and lovable personality, which not only wins over his adoptive family in the film, but also the audience in the movie theatre.

Timothée Chalamet's Wonka is very similar to the talking bear. Silly and bizarre. Always counting on the good intentions of other people – sometimes to his own undoing. But Wonka wouldn’t be Wonka if a few setbacks were to throw him off course so easily. The budding master chocolatier is too hard-boiled and stubborn as he works towards his dreams – played wonderfully cheeky, fresh and wide-eyed by Chalamet. Because everything good in the world, as the movie so sweetly puts it, begins with a dream.

Too cheesy? Then save your trip to the cinema. King’s movie rarely holds back. Especially not with its numerous singing and dancing interludes. Yep: Wonka is a musical through and through. This may sound like a criticism, but it’s intended as a compliment. Wonka, in which every scene seems to be wrapped in the sweetest cotton candy, isn’t a movie to watch outside of the pre-Christmas period. But it is one that you have to watch in the run-up to Christmas.

Criticism? I don’t like to criticise, but if I must...

It’s nice that Wonka's back story doesn’t just revolve entirely around him. It’s more about the effect Wonka has on the people around him with his bluntly charming personality – another thing that director King copied from his Paddington films.

Noodle (Calah Lane) is big-hearted but sad and disappointed by life. Abacus Crunch (Jim Carter) is a bookmaker who unwillingly finds himself as a servant of the evil Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman), who in turn is secretly conspiring with the chocolate cartel. And they in turn, led by the cunning Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), team up with the chocolate-addicted chief of police (Keegan-Michael Key) and the very corruptible priest (Rowan Atkinson) of the local church. And then there’s the absolute scene-stealer Hugh Grant as the grumpy Oompa-Loompa, who secretly steals Wonka’s chocolate. Fantastic.

If I have to criticise Wonka for one thing, it’s this: the trailer says, «Discover how Willy became Wonka.» Now, it’s not the fact that someone at Warner Bros. film studios thinks they’re incredibly clever, rather, the problem is we hardly learn anything new about the main character. And certainly not how Willy became Wonka – Gene Wilder’s Wonka from 1971. The fact that Wonka is a prequel to this, and not Johnny Depp’s 2005 reinterpretation, is made clear from the very first second when the lovely melody from Pure Imagination is heard, a song that Wilder sings in the 1971 original.

Chalamet plays Wilder’s younger version. A young Wonka and indeed a fascinatingly charming mixture of charisma, eccentricity and melancholy. Chalamet has got it all. But what he lacks is Wilder’s affinity for, well, madness? In the 1971 original, Wonka could sometimes easily pass for a sociopath who would have no problem killing naughty children in his workshop (he doesn't... allegedly). And children’s author Roald Dahl, whose work the 1971 film is based on, somehow makes this ambivalence work thanks to his ingenious writing. In Wonka, on the other hand, Chalamet is a hopeful, naive do-gooder full of compassion – right to the end. The movie never shows how Timothée eventually becomes Wilder (are you watching Warner Bros.? I can do the stupid puns too).

But I don’t think he has to. Nor would it have fitted in with the rest of the tonality that director King evokes in typical Paddington fashion. For example, when people sing about the fact that they’re singing as if they were in a musical – one of the many «side effects» of Wonka’s chocolate. That’s about as absurd as a talking bear who loves toast with apricot jam. Things that nobody ever finds strange in King’s films and precisely what makes his works so charming.

My verdict: simple, magical and wonderful

I didn’t think it was possible, but Wonka is an enchanting movie that stimulates the imagination and warms the heart – perfect for the Christmas season. Admittedly, Wonka isn’t entirely free of clichés. But that doesn’t detract from the fun. This family movie is simply too heart-warming for both young and old.

The reason for this doesn’t just come from King’s direction full of charm, colour, wonder and ingenuity. Above all, it’s Timothée Chalamet as the perfectly cast, young Willy Wonka who carries the movie on his shoulders with ease. The fact that we don’t learn how his cosmopolitan version became the insular, opaque Wilder-Wonka of 1971 is a justified criticism. But it didn’t bother me.

The icing on the cake is then played by a completely different person anyway. A Brit: Hugh Grant. Not as an ageing beau. But an orange creature with green hair, shrunk to the size of a jar of sweets. I’ll just say one thing: make sure you stay seated during the credits.

Do-ba-dee-doo.

Wonka will be in cinemas from 7 December 2023. Runtime: 117 minutes. No age restriction.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.» more

These articles might also interest you