Wonka

It’s all very Mary Poppins meets Fantastic Beats. Every little detail in the set is a moving piece, every thread in every outrageous outfit stitched in place with precise intent. But beyond the aesthetic, the writing fails to present strong conflict or high stakes, to get involved with. You KNOW the lady with the bad teeth is not going to be able to keep Chalamet in her basement forever, because Olivia Colman has been given those bad teeth. You KNOW Keegan-Micheal Key will never succeed in his nefarious plans as the corrupt police office, because he’s at the receiving end of fat jokes. Hugh Grant, in his much debated role doesn’t even appear for an hour-ish, and when he does show up in, its Hugh Grant doing Hugh Grant dressed as an Oompa Loompa. It’s funny cuz he’s posh, but that’s about all the emotion the character generates. It could be AI, and one couldn’t tell the difference. Wonka lacks the sense of wonder that should have been its baseline. Instead, its predictable and mostly unsurprising, the LAST two words one should be using when writing about a film that draws from such incredible source material. Perhaps it really is for a younger audience that isnt burdened by their own expectations of what a good Timothee Chalamate performance looks like, and seeing the actor milk a giraffe will be enough to bring them joy. Or for an older audience with memories of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka they’d like to relive.