Wonka

Ok. Imagine a prequel to Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory directed by the guy who helmed Paddington 2. Add Hugh Grant as a curmudgeonly Oompa-Lumpa and if that seems perfect, well, that’s because it pretty much is. In fact, if ever there was a film written with Christmas 2023, then this is it. 

But there’s singing! 

Whoah, there Nelly, my pastel-painted charger! Nobody said anything about singing. Well, that’s because the music here is so deliciously slight that it won’t trouble your earlobes. Rather than Tim Burton’s Sweeny Todd, the cast gamely use it as a colouring-in device for their characters rather than an exposition dump that labourously drills into your eyeballs.

You see this is Charlie the chocolatier before the factory ever came into being. He has a bag full of fancies to entrance the denizens of someplace that looks like Paris (but talks like Shropshire) and if optimism could be bottled, then Timothy Chalamet as Wonka is definitely trying.

Yet, in the way of his fondant-fanciable future lurks several sour surprises. First is the bullet-proof Olivia Colman as Mrs Scrubbit who contractually enslaves him for all eternity and then the chocolate cartel of Arthur Slugworth, Felix Fickelgruber and Gerald Prodnose who bribe Keegan-Michael Key‘s police chief to run Wonka out of town. 

So far, so fiendish. Fortunately, though, Will Wonka puts his noodle together with a young orphan also called Noodle, who is scene-stealingly played by Calah Lane. Together, with the pieces all set in place and a production design that’s positively glittering with stardust what can ruin this raspberry recipe? Nothing… except, possibly the shadow of a previous incarnation.

Gene Wilder was and is for many, the most book-faithful incarnation of Willy Wonka. Mercurial, mischievous and occasionally malevolent, his Wonka didn’t take prisoners armed with a razor-sharp tongue and a mysterious glint in his eye. Here, Timothy Chalamet’s version is more boundless optimism and joy personified which almost begs a darker second chapter before we get to glass elevators and golden tickets.

So until that day arrives, enjoy the cavalcade of cameos and veritable who’s who’s of acting talent that adorns director Paul King‘s prequel.