Loading ...Movie Review - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
User Rating:
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
2005 / 115 Minutes / PG
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz
Unlike most people my age, I do not hold “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” on any kind of pedestal. By and large, I think it’s a heavily flawed movie with some good moments and a great performance by Gene Wilder as the titular candy tycoon. Wilder gives perhaps his greatest performance of all time in the film, and the kid who plays Charlie does a decent job (everyone does, really) but the production design is a little garish and the songs that are shoehorned into the production really grind the proceedings to a halt. (Though the songs performed by the Oompa Loompas are fantastic.) It’s a pleasant diversion, but no sacred cow. Not for me, anyway. Perhaps my opinion on it has something to do with the fact that I did not see it until after high school.
With Tim Burton at the helm and Johnny Depp as the eccentric Mr. Wonka, this movie had pretty much the best possible team behind it. Wilder was brilliant, but Depp is always excellent and abstract, so I felt he was the best man to fill in Gene’s rather large shoes. And, as I said earlier, I do not regard the original film as any sacred enterprise. Therefore, I was expecting a treat as I bought my ticket to this new version of Road Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.
And, in some respects, the movie delivered. As a whole, however, I preferred the original.
“Charlie” is the story of a boy named Charlie (Freddie Highmore) who lives in squalor with his loving family (his mother is Helena Bonham Carter, his father is Noah Taylor, and his grandfather Joe is played by David Kelly). One day, he opens a Wonka candy bar and discovers a golden ticket which entitles him to a tour of the reclusive candyman’s factory. Along with him come five other children: the gluttonous Augustus Gloop, the selfish Veruca Salt, the overly confident Violet Bouregard and the all-out annoying Mike TeeVee. Wonka (Depp) takes them on a tour of the factory which has some unexpected surprises (these surprises, however, are not unexpected to anyone familiar with the original film or the source book).
The film trumps the earlier movie in several areas. First of all, the production design is eye-popping and glorious. The special effects generate an air of magic. Danny Elfman’s score, as usual, is top notch. And then we have the most drastic improvement: Charlie and his family. They were endearing in the original film, but they are even more captivating here. I loved these people. Charlie is a darling little boy, and Highmore plays him so realistically that he isn’t grating. In the wrong hands, his character could be a sappy candidate for sainthood, but Highmore makes you believe. I loved this boy in “Finding Neverland” and I love him again here. He’s a phenomenal talent, and he is easily the best thing about both movies. Taylor and Bonham Carter are also great in unexpected, domestic roles and David Kelly sparkles and shines as Charlie’s kindly (and slightly loony) grandfather. The entire family ensemble is so good that when Charlie does find the golden ticket, I could actually feel tears of joy in my eyes.
This early stuff generates a wave of goodwill that lasts through the first couple of rough patches. However, it isn’t quite enough to last for the entire film. Why? Well, here is where the original film was superior.
For one thing, the film is too long. It’s magical entertainment for a while, but then it keeps going and going, piling on annoying child antics (not by Freddie, but the other child characters are profoundly irritating and the performances that bring them to life don’t help), lackluster musical numbers, and an unnecessary back story. It doesn’t add much to know how Wonka came to be the way that he is. In fact, it robs his character of the mysterious nature that made him so interesting in the original film. Depp doesn’t help any. He’s funny, sure, but his performance is fairly one-note. He doesn’t give Wonka the effortless layers that Gene Wilder provided. He’s creepy, but not creepy enough, and he’s funny but never all that hilarious. It’s an odd performance, to be sure, but it’s one of his least interesting in a long time. Does this mean that Johnny Depp has finally sold out? I hope not, but only time will tell. It’s nice to see Christopher Lee on hand as well, but the movie doesn’t give him anything interesting to do.
None of the musical numbers are quite as lame as that “Candyman” number from the 1971 movie, but they’re not all that great either. The first Oompa Loompa song is lively and fun. It filled me with a sense of giddiness. Unfortunately, each subsequent song gets a little worse and a little more jarring. They ruin the momentum of the film and, besides, I couldn’t even understand the lyrics.
The worst thing about the film, however, is the fact that Charlie seems to disappear into the background once the film arrives at the factory. Charlie is the heart and soul of the film, he and his family are the most magical thing about it, and moving the focus to the other children (who are dull and annoying) and Wonka (who’s oddly flat) really hurts the film. Ultimately, the factory tour is too long, not all that exciting (the events of the tour seem like glossier retreads of the original film) and hollow. There’s no life to much of this stuff, which the film seems to compensate for by going overboard and piling on the extravagance at every turn. All they really needed to do was pay a little more attention to Charlie and Grandpa Joe. The focus returns to them near the end, but it’s a case of too little, too late. By that point, I was just tired of sitting in this theater, tired of this world that had once been so magical and filled me with such giddy delight.
If the film would have lived up to the promise of it’s first hour, it would have been quite a treat indeed. But unfortunately, for all its flash and flair, I prefer the low-key pleasures of the original Willy Wonka. It might not have been as extravagant and gorgeous, but it kept its eye on the ball and its heart in the right place.
