04 December 2023 , 21:00
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There's one film expected to dominate the cinemas this Christmas.... and it’s not the re-released Die Hard. It’s Wonka - the new musical prequel about the world’s most famous factory owner, which opens this Friday
The new movie sees Hollywood star-du-jour Timothee Chalamet as a younger Willy dreaming of opening his factory full of sweets and oompa loompas. And while it’s been 18 years since Johnny Depp took on the role, and 52 since Gene Wilder made it his own, Chalamet’s now set to introduce a whole new generation to a world of pure imagination.
So will the musical - also starring Olivia Colman and Hugh Grant - be sugary sweet like a cherry bon bon? Or an a delightful assault on the senses like a lemon sherbert? The Daily Mirror’s film critic Andy Lea had a golden ticket to bring you the first review....
It was a hot summer for movies, with film fans queueing around the block for Barbie and Oppenhemier. And 2023 looks set to end with a bang with this wonderful confection from director Paul King and writer Simon Farnaby, the British duo behind Paddington 2.
Achingly sweet, deliciously nutty, and wrapped in gorgeous candy-coloured visuals, their winning take on a Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory looks set to be this Christmas’s “golden ticket”.
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Wonka is the new musical prequel about the world’s most famous factory owner (Warner Bros.)A tuneful Timothée Chalamet hits on the perfect blend of pluck and innocence as a young Willy Wonka. King tips his top hat to Gene Wilder’s confectionist by signalling his arrival with the refrain of Pure Imagination, the near-perfect song from Wilder’s 1971 version.
And Chalamet’s turn feels closer to Wilder’s excitable Willy than Johnny Depp’s darker Wonka from Tim Burton’s 2005 film. In fact he’s even more affable than Wilder’s. There’s none of that “I said Good Day sir” cruelty from Chalamet. His magical chocolate maker will charm kids of all ages.
We meet the dreamer on a boat singing A Hatful Dreams, one of six witty new songs from The Divine Comedy’s Neil Scanlon. He’s spent the past seven years cooking up magical chocolates in the galley. Now he’s coming ashore to share his “incredible edibles” with the world.
But his first day in King’s fantasy city (a mish-mash of architecture from around Europe) does go well after he ends up in hock to the dastardly Mr Bleacher (Tom Davis) and Mrs Scrubitt (Oliva Colman). To pay off their huge boarding house bill, he’ll have to toil for years in their underground laundry.
With help from imprisoned orphan Noodle (Calah Lane) and his fellow scrubbers (including Jim Carter), Willy hatches a plan to sneak out in the day and make a fortune from his chocs. His exotic ingredients, including fluffy centres made from “the mallow marshes of Peru”, are a hit with punters floating in the air with delight.
But his success attracts the attention of the three men who run the city’s “chocolate cartel” (Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas and Matthew Baynton) and have the city’s sweet-toothed police chief (Keegan-Michael Key) in their pay. As he did with the Paddington films, King keeps pulling at the plot until it unravels into a delightful mess.
There’s a subplot involving Hugh Grant as a snarky Oompah Lumpa and a heist at a cathedral, where Rowan Atkinson’s corrupt vicar is in charge of “500 chocoholic monks”. But it’s the quirky British humour that ties it all together. King’s genius lies in his ability to tickle both growing and creaking funny bones at the same time. I think we’ve got a new Christmas classic.