It's hard to write reviews of movies you wholeheartedly like. Let's state outright that Willy Wonky is a fantastic movie, and one of the most wonderfully dark family movies ever realised. It simply is. It's so good that it looks like a movie much later in time with sensibilities of a much from much earlier. It's just that tiny bit transcendent. Amazing.
Chief amongst the strengths of this excellent little movie is Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, a giant amongst screen stars and more evidence, if evidence were needed, that we just don't make movie stars the way we used to. Genuine or not, the mark of all-knowing wisdom in Gene Wilder's eyes can captivate whole rooms full of people. He also gets to deliver a very freaky monologue on a speeding paddlesteamer ferry.
The rest of the cast is a mix of solid supporting players and character actors, with Roy Kinnear as the most recognisable. The story runs thusly: Impoverished Charlie Bucket lives with his mother and bed-ridden grandparents in a dilapidated house in a generic British town which happens to contain the site of famed chocolatier Willy Wonka's factory. Willy Wonka has been a recluse for many years, with an unknown work force but one day he announces a competition involving five golden tickets hidden inside Wonka bars and the grand prize of a grand tour around his factory...
Now, if there are flaws to be picked at we could easily point out that Charlie's family is so impoverished as to be totally unrealistic. Living on cabbage water is not possible, nor is supporting four bed-ridden grandparents on a single laundress salary. Perhaps all my tiny problems are with the portions involving Charlie's family, even the one dull song which his mother sings. Are we also led to believe that the saintly Grandpa Joe was fully ambulatory this whole time and simply lazing about in that bed? The cad!
Hmm. Music. The music is good and the kid performers well suited to everything asked of them. The main bulk of the musical heave lifting is born by the Oompa Loompas, who were wonderful and I will not spoil for anyone uninitiated into Oompa Loompa-dom. I miss Oompa Loompas. The Effects are extraordinary and not at all dated in that way that good practical effects can't expire. In comparison CGI effects have an incredibly short shelf-life. What's more to say?
It's dark, it's dank, it has a chocolate factory and a standout performance by Gene Wilder. The music is good, the effects are good. There is confectionery. And at least one of the kids is a bad egg.
O.
PS Don't trust Slugworth.
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