Movie: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Well, turns out I was half-right on this one.

I have been getting in heated arguments for close to a year about the casting of Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. I didn't like it, thought it was shortsighted ("Willy Wonka is weird, Depp is weird... Perfect!"), and I had a different actor in mind for the role: Will Ferrell. I just think a combination of his character from Elf and his character from the "Get off the shed!" SNL skit would have been perfect. However, I do not have the "juice" in Hollywood yet, so I don't get to decide these things. My opinion for months has been that Depp would do an ok-but-not-good-enough job as Wonka, but Burton would knock it out of the park. Turns out that I thought Depp was pretty good (sub-par to Gene Wilder, but acceptable), but Burton screwed it up.

I hate to say that, too, because the first 30 minutes of the movie, leading up to the children's admittance to the factory, was almost perfect. The Buckets' home was a near-perfect Burton creation, and the news reports on the other winners were wonderful. Charlie is shown as possessing all the necessary over-abundance of morals to make the ending satisfying. And once you enter the factory, there are still things to like. The sets are impressive. Many of the children are more engaging than the original team (especially Anna-Sophia Robb, who plays Violet Beauregarde so amazingly well that she risks stealing the movie from Charlie until that fateful piece of gum).

And Depp's interpretation of Willy Wonka as a boy who never ever had to grow up or even learn how to communicate with the outside world was well-realized, and even made the silliness I hated in the trailers plausible, since his entire existance didn't have one bit of seriousness to it. I even liked the inclusion of the Wonka origin story, starring Christopher Lee as Saruman the dentist.

But sadly, the film just felt too safe. Wonka's factory is supposed to be amazing to the point of being uncomfortable to those of us who are familiar with the outside world. The original film puts you on edge the whole time, as Wilder's behavior in these odd surroundings is so contrary to normalcy that you have no idea what he might do next. In this film, everything seems recycled and safe, and can be toured with the leisure of a ride from Walt Disney World. Furthermore, the decision to make Wonka such a flawed character than Charlie has to teach him the meaning of family is... well, its there in the source material, but Wonka is supposed to learn from Charlie by observing, not by showing all his faults to Charlie! Once Charlie (and the audience) realizes that Wonka is going to need Charlie to lead him by the hand, the magic of the factory has completely gone, and it seems like a sad escape for a flawed little boy, not someplace that any child would dream to live in.

Yes, I'm holding this movie to a high standard, but this story in the hands of this director should be. And it sadly falls short.

Categories: Movies