!CONTAINS SPOILERS!
When I walked into the theater to see “Wonka,” my expectations were low. I thought the posters were ugly, and the trailer wasn’t captivating. But within 10 minutes of the film, my worries were washed away. The film keeps viewers fully immersed through the cinematography and beautiful set designs.
The film follows a young Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) as he sails to a new city in hopes of opening a chocolate factory. It’s there that he meets Ms. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman) and is persuaded to stay at her boarding house while he gets his business started. He signs a contract, confirming his stay despite being warned by an orphan, Noodle (Calah Lane), to read the fine print. When Wonka is hit with excessive fees and cannot pay for his stay, he’s forced to work in a laundrette with five other guests who made the same mistake as him. Together they create a plan to sneak out of the laundrette to sell chocolate at Galerie’s Gourmet to pay off all of their fees. While selling chocolate, Wonka is rivaled by three chocolatiers who make up the “Chocolate Cartel,” who sabotage him, as they don’t want to see him succeed.
Usually, I’m not a fan of musicals, which is another factor that made me nervous going into the film, especially given that Chalamet had never sung in a film before. But it worked very well in this case. All of the songs served a purpose in the film, and none of them seemed to drag on long enough to bore audiences. Chalamet has a nice voice, and I enjoyed most of the songs and the scenes that accompanied them in the film.
The acting for the majority of the film was great, and despite the pushback Chalamet got when he was first cast as Wonka, he was as close to perfect as he could have been for the role. While his light and whimsical performance doesn’t match the dark and sinister performance of Gene Wilder, I don’t think it mattered because the movie was going for a different vibe given that it’s directed by Paul King, who previously directed “Paddington” and its sequel. Based on his previous films, I’m not shocked “Wonka” had a much more childlike feel to it, and with his directing style, it worked out well. While I thought Chalamet gave a great performance, many members of the supporting cast gave great performances as well. Colman’s performance as Ms. Scrubbit was one of my favorites in the film, and she was an absolute scene-stealer. It was impossible not to focus solely on her whenever she was on screen.
Despite being a children’s movie, the film is still able to grab the heartstrings of viewers. Wonkas’ love for chocolate stems from childhood memories with his mother. Wonka says nobody ever made chocolate better than her, but there was a secret ingredient she never shared with him. When she passes away, all Wonka has left of her is a chocolate bar she made for him. At the film’s end, when the Chocolate Cartel has been exposed for corruption, Wonka eats the chocolate bar as a celebration. Inside the wrapper, there’s a message saying, “It’s not about the chocolate, but who you share it with.” I thought this was a heartfelt moment because the phrase runs much deeper than chocolate — it’s about the people you surround yourself with.
Overall, I think this movie is worth the watch because it’s much more than what the trailers showed us. It’s cute, fun and heartwarming, and I can see it becoming a holiday “classic” for many. I look forward to rewatching it soon.
