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By CityCharlie & the Chocolate Factory
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Charlie & the Chocolate Factory** out of 5 stars
2005-07-25
Article Written by: Todd Darby
A plea to Tim Burton: You are one of the most original, creative minds to come out of mainstream Hollywood in the last 20 years. Films like Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Big Fish all share your unique style and vision, a signature that has earned you not only massive box office numbers but a cult fan base that could probably identify your work by only a couple of frames of any of your films. (It's much in the same way that long, wordy, run-on sentences are my trademark.) So why would such an original filmmaker feel the desire to remake already well known and beloved films like your dreadful version of Planet of the Apes and now, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I know, I know, it's "not a remake of the Gene Wilder classic, it's a more faithful adaptation of the Roald Dahl book.". Sure Tim, whatever helps you sleep at night.
There is at least one major difference though. This is, like the Dahl book, "Charlie" and not "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory". Little Charlie Bucket, played marvelously by Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland) is "supposed" to be the center of the story and for the first act of the film, at least, he is. It is impossible not to fall in love with the poorer than poor Bucket Family. The mom and dad, played by Helena Bonham Carter and Noah Taylor (Shine) and Grandpa, played by David Kelly (Waking Ned Divine) are perfect. Even though you already know what's going to happen, you really are anxiously waiting and hoping for Charlie to find the last golden ticket. ...Then he finally does find the last golden ticket and it's all down hill from there when Mr.Wonka shows up. Willy Wonka is, of course, played by Johnny Depp in what may be his strangest performance to date, which is saying a lot from the man who played Hunter Thompson and Ed Wood, not to mention a guy with scissors for hands. This is also his most unlikeable and annoying character. Johnny Depp is one of the most talented actors of his generation but this time it really felt as if he was just trying to make his Willy Wonka quirky and obnoxious, not out of artisitic choice as much as to keep himself interested enough to stay awake from shear boredom with the film. Depp is like a nightmarish cross between Michael Jackson (although he denys it) and Howard Hughes. Depp ping pongs back and forth between being repulsed by the children and oddly fascinated by them, both moods being unwholesome and creepy. Sometimes it sounds like he's doing an impression of Dr.Evil from Austin Powers, which made me wonder how Mike Myers would have played Wonka. At least his comments to the children would have been funnier. Depp's jabs to the little ones, like calling Veruca Salt a wart, are not clever or sarcastic like Gene Wilder's were. His are just mean, and well, like most everything else about him, creepy. Then there is the whole totally unneeded backstory involving Willy Wonka's strict dentist father played by the legendary Christopher Lee. It is just a distraction, much like the bad wig and the fake teeth. Speaking of annoying distractions, proof that technology does not always make movies better are the Oompa Loompas, all 200 or so of which are played by bugged eyed and digitally multiplied Deep Roy. Personally, I think they should have picked Wee Man from Jackass. This time the Oompa Loompa songs include a rap song and a heavy metal song and all of them scream of trying way to hard to be hip. The songs are awkward and out of place and fail to convey any morals or lessons learned that were intented.
The children are bearable. Augustis Gloop is fat. Veruca Salt is British and stuck up and that's about it. The book is a classic children's novel and this film has been marketed as a better film for children than the 1971 original but I would not not recommend this one for the little ones or anyone for that matter. This Willy Wonka is not someone you'd want your kids to take candy from. In one scene, Mike Teevee asks why everything is so pointless, to which Charlie replies that chocolate doesn't have to have a point. maybe this film should have had one.
