Michael's Movie Grade: A-
This Willy Wonka prequel is better than it has any right to be.
The idea of a prequel to Willy Wonka is not one that immediately appealed to me as I didn't feel like the character needed any backstory. However just like he did with his wonderful Paddington films director/writer Paul King made a believer out of me. He (and co-writer Simon Farnaby (who co-wrote Paddington 2 (2017) with King)) brings the same incredible charm to this movie. The magic of this movie is that it makes adults watching feel like kids again. This film is full of a real sense of innocence, imagination and unflinching optimism. As we see the pure imagination (yes that was intentional) and childlike wonder in all that Willy Wonka creates, it simply brings you back to a childlike belief in magic and the ability to see wonder in the thing grown-ups take for granted. True it often delves into sentimentality, but it does so in such an unapologetic in gleeful way that this sentimentality becomes one of the film's greatest charms. This is especially true as we grow to care deeply about these characters and want nothing more than to watch all their dreams come true. Whenever things seem to be working out well for them, we truly feel a real sense of joy.
Though he has big shoes to fill Timothée Chalamet is truly incredibly as Willy Wonka. There is such an incredible childlike quality to his performance that always feels completely natural. He also captures the pure showmanship that any Willy Wonka should have, as he has an incredible amount of charisma. This is especially shown during the song numbers. While these new songs (by Neil Hannon (of the Irish pop band, The Devine Comedy)) range from great to well less than great, Timothée Chalamet sells each one perfectly with his performance of them. When the songs are good, he makes them even better. When the songs are less good, he still makes them work. Though his performance is obviously inspired by Gene Wilder's take on the character, he never copies Wilder and instead brings his own take on the character to the role as well.
At the start of this film, it seemed like the humor was going to be a big fault. Some of the early comedic bits didn't quite work for me. However, the humor here got better very soon. Not only did the film become actually funny, but it even made me (and the audience in the theater with me) laugh out loud. Not only this but it made me laugh very often. I did not expect to laugh much coming into this movie (and some of the early comedic moments seemed to reinforce this), so this was a very pleasant surprise.
This is a pure delight of a movie and is much better than I had any right to expect.
Though he has big shoes to fill Timothée Chalamet is truly incredibly as Willy Wonka. There is such an incredible childlike quality to his performance that always feels completely natural. He also captures the pure showmanship that any Willy Wonka should have, as he has an incredible amount of charisma. This is especially shown during the song numbers. While these new songs (by Neil Hannon (of the Irish pop band, The Devine Comedy)) range from great to well less than great, Timothée Chalamet sells each one perfectly with his performance of them. When the songs are good, he makes them even better. When the songs are less good, he still makes them work. Though his performance is obviously inspired by Gene Wilder's take on the character, he never copies Wilder and instead brings his own take on the character to the role as well.
At the start of this film, it seemed like the humor was going to be a big fault. Some of the early comedic bits didn't quite work for me. However, the humor here got better very soon. Not only did the film become actually funny, but it even made me (and the audience in the theater with me) laugh out loud. Not only this but it made me laugh very often. I did not expect to laugh much coming into this movie (and some of the early comedic moments seemed to reinforce this), so this was a very pleasant surprise.
This is a pure delight of a movie and is much better than I had any right to expect.
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