Wonka is a 2023 musical fantasy film directed by Paul King, based on a story by King. It tells the origin story of Willy Wonka, a character in the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, featuring his early days as a chocolatier. It stars Timothée Chalamet as the title character, with an ensemble cast including Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carter, Olivia Colman, and Hugh Grant.
Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet), an aspiring magician, inventor, and chocolatier, arrives in Europe to establish his chocolate shop at the Galeries Gourmet. There is no backstory regarding his magical powers and how he enchants the chocolates. Also, considering in the previous Charlie and the Chocolate Factory iteration was focused more on Wonka’s dad and his dentistry causing Willy to run away, here it is all about some shared dream Willy and his mum (Sally Hawkins) had. After using up his meager savings, he is coerced to stay at Mrs. Scrubitt’s (Olivia Colman) boardinghouse by her henchman, Bleacher. Despite orphan Noodle’s warning about the fine print, Wonka signs a contract because he is illiterate. To pay them off, Wonka has an idea and sells “hoverchocs,” chocolates that make people fly, facing mockery from three rival chocolatiers who call the Chief of Police to confiscate his earnings for selling without a chocolate store.
Unable to pay the fees imposed on him by the ridiculous contract, Wonka is captured and is forced to work in a launderette for Mrs. Scrubitt alongside five other captives, including Noodle (a character missing in the books and previous iterations but the diversity and inclusion brigade needed a character to pass through the woke academy). Learning of a “Chocolate Cartel” consisting of the three rival chocolatiers, who exploit the Chief’s temptation for chocolate to force Wonka to leave town, Wonka makes his escape with the help of Noodle; while he promises her a lifetime supply of chocolates, she promises to teach him how to read. Wonka tells Noodle that his affinity for chocolate stems from his late mother. He also mentions the theft of his chocolates by an enigmatic orange man who has been stealing them for years.
To produce his signature chocolate, Wonka and Noodle travel to the local zoo, milking Abigail the giraffe. Together with the other laundrette workers, they embark on a chocolate selling crusade to alleviate their debts while using tunnels underneath the city to evade Scrubitt, the police, and the Chief. Unmasking an Oompa Loompa named Lofty (Hugh Grant) as the thief, Wonka discovers that the Oompa Loompa seeks retribution for the cocoa beans that Wonka unknowingly stole from Loompaland years ago under Lofty’s watch, resulting in Lofty’s exile, before he escapes by hitting Wonka.
With the funds the captives raised from selling chocolates, they open Wonka’s dream chocolate store. The Chief and the Chocolate Cartel, who are now unable to arrest him since he has a legitimate shop, reveals Wonka’s shop plan to Scrubitt and Bleacher who poison his chocolates with different ingredients with negative side effects, such as Yeti sweat. On the store’s opening day, when the customers notice their hair growing and changing color, Wonka reveals that the chocolates have appeared to be poisoned. As a result, the furious customers destroy Wonka’s store. Wonka agrees to the Cartel’s offer to leave town by ship to pay off everyone’s debts. The remaining workers are allowed to leave the launderette except Noodle, as the Cartel’s leader Arthur Slugworth pays Scrubitt to keep her there indefinitely, as Noodle poses a threat to him and his fortune. Wonka learns that Noodle is Slugworth’s niece, before he and Lofty are forced to jump off the boat that has been rigged to explode. After Wonka rescues Noodle with the help of the group, they create a strategy to obtain the Cartel’s incriminating account book.
Taking advantage of Abigail’s distraction, Wonka and Noodle infiltrate the Cartel’s base. They are confronted by the Cartel, with Slugworth revealing that Noodle, who was reported dead to her mother, Dorothy, was left by him to Scrubitt in order to eliminate her claim to the family fortune. The Cartel attempts to drown Wonka and Noodle in chocolate, but Lofty rescues them and they expose the Cartel’s misdeeds to the authorities and the public. Wonka’s friends release the Cartel’s chocolate reserve through a fountain, laced with Wonka’s unique ingredients, ruining the Cartel’s enterprise.
The Cartel is destroyed, and the police arrest the Chief. The crowd revels in tasting Wonka’s chocolate fountain, and Wonka unwraps the last chocolate bar his mother had given him, discovering a golden paper with a message that says what matters is who you share the chocolate with, so he decides to share it with his friends – pretty cheesy but hey, it’s a cheesy movie. He later helps Noodle in reuniting with Dorothy at the library, settles his debt with Lofty, and finds an abandoned castle for sale to start building his own factory, with Lofty as his tasting chef. In the epilogue, Lofty narrates how the captives returned to their old lives, and he shows video footage of Scrubitt and Bleacher being arrested after their attempt to eliminate evidence of sabotaging Wonka’s shop backfired.
Alright – so why didn’t I like this movie? First Willy Wonka himself – Timothee Chalamet is woefully miscast in this role. He seems childish and eccentric but not in a good way. His performance is one-dimensional and it doesn’t help that the musical performances in this movie are just people talking about what they are doing or plan to do but with some music added in the background, which is pretty lame for a musical. His take on Willy Wonka is so selfless and pure, that he makes great men throughout the ages appear as hooligans. Both him and the previous Willy Wonka, Johnny Depp, fail to capture the essence of the Willy Wonka from the books but Gene Wilder was the best in his 1971 take on the character.
Next the signature, token black character for diversity sake – Noodle. Helpful and supportive of Willy’s dreams, she is a decent supporting character but not at all essential to the story. Plus a 28 year old Wonka spending so much time with a 14 year old girl, is not “magical” and “sweet” but a bit creepy. The Oompa-Loompa, played by Hugh Grant is not as fun as I remember the previous ones to be. This one acts like a spoiled, aristocratic Englishman rather than some fantasy character from a mysterious island.
Lastly, the movie doesn’t delve much into Wonka’s character and his magical prowess or his inventions. Even the candy, don’t seem that interesting – as one of the villains puts it, you don’t buy chocolates to fly, you buy it for the taste. Even the special effects, aren’t that special, so not worth spending money to go watch it on the big screen.
JAY’S VERDICT
Oompa loompa doompety day. Avoid Wonka every-day.
