Sweet treat
Roald Dahl hated the 1971 movie musical adaptation of his kids’ classic Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. He was never happy with the casting of Gene Wilder as the childtorturing confectionist, wanting the role to go to Spike Milligan instead.
So I can’t imagine he’d be happy with the casting of dreamboat Timothée Chalamet in director Paul King’s origin story.
Chalamet’s Wonka has an even gooier centre than Wilder’s. There’s none of that “Good day, sir” cruelty from this big-hearted dreamer, and his fresh-faced, wide-eyed
Wonka befriends a plucky girl instead of having her sucked down a rubbish chute.
But I wonder what Milligan would have made of it.
Before King took on the Paddington films, he directed BBC sitcom The Mighty Boosh, and it feels as if Wonka is drawing on a tradition of surreal British comedy that runs from Milligan’s The Goon Show through the Pythons, The Goodies and Vic and Bob.
The plot sees a young Wonka battle three villainous members of a chocolate cartel (Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas and Mathew Baynton) and a corrupt cop (Keeganmichael Key) to open his first chocolate shop. Then, he’s tricked into years of hard labour in the laundry of Mrs Scrubbit (Olivia Colman) and teams up with an orphan called Noodle (Calah Lane).
There are witty, hummable new songs ( from The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon and Joby Talbot), candy-coloured visuals and some wonderfully weird diversions. A shrunken Hugh Grant pops up as an Oompa-loompa burglar, a giraffe gets milked, and Rowan Atkinson plays a corrupt cleric who leads an army of chocoholic monks.
It’s deliciously nutty. King’s confection could be this Christmas’s golden ticket.
‘‘ Timothée Chalamet’s Wonka has an even gooier centre than Gene Wilder’s