Timothée Chalamet is the latest actor to take on Roald Dahl’s well known story, this time focusing on the chocolatier’s origin story.
The Guardian: ***** “Chalamet is elfin and puckish, unworldly and possessed of a Paddingtonian innocence and charm – and a nice singing voice – without being insufferable.”
The FT: *** “Like the film’s hero, King has a heap of ideas and contraption-ish energy. A seasoned cast precision-execute a script co-written, like the Paddingtons, by the slightly unsung Simon Farnaby. Not much is unsung here, however. Given plucky voice by Chalamet, Joby Talbot’s tunes are clever and catchy. They also come in such number as to feel like a side-effect of a Wonka concoction, manically driving the film on to find ever more rhymes for chocolate. (Eyes pop out of sock-alates.)”
BBC.com: *** “One aspect of the film which stops it being more enjoyable is that it is set in “a world of pure imagination”, as the song from the 1971 film goes. Dahl’s novel bristled with the author’s annoyance at the nuisances of contemporary life, and even Paddington 2 was concerned with the injustices of modern Britain. But just as one scene has Willy being carried over the city by a bunch of helium balloons, the film ignores the gravitational pull of reality. Relentlessly wacky and over-the-top, everything in it is too contrived to care about.”
Variety: “Yet I’d wager that it might have been an even bigger hit had it been a little less sanded off for children, and had it tapped more into the Roald Dahlness of it all (which was there in last year’s lively adaptation of Dahl’s “Matilda”). The movie’s songs, written by Neil Hannon, carry you along, though with more rambunctious energy than rapture — at least until you get to the iconic song reprised from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” “Pure Imagination,” which does a lovely job of tickling our sweet tooth of nostalgia. “Wonka” makes you feel good, but it never makes you levitate.”
Evening Standard: ***** “Someone recently asked me what Wonka has to do to win over British hearts. Given the state of things, I said all it needed do is make people feel good. The morning after seeing it, this musical-phobic writer was loofah-ing in the shower and still gleefully singing, “Ooompa, loopma, doompety doo…”. So I’d say, mission accomplished.”
Empire: **** “As with Paddington 2, King and co- screenwriter Simon Farnaby’s writing is at its best concocting crazy schemes involving the unlikeliest elements (one involves a faux Bavarian aristocrat; another involves milking a giraffe). Similarly, the script is studded with delicious details, be it visual conceits (Wonka lighting a candle by blowing on it) or off-the-wall ideas (the cartel’s incriminating ledger is guarded by Rowan Atkinson’s corrupt cleric and 500 chocoholic monks). It’s a delightful, daffy world, and a pleasure to spend time in.”
The Independent: **** “Chalamet, it’s clear, possesses the kind of all-round star power capable of shouldering Wonka’s whimsy. He can certainly dance and sing as well as he needs to – but, most importantly, he has the kind of raw talent that can carry a film like this right over the sentimental finishing line, much like Ben Whishaw’s done by voicing Paddington.”
City Am: **** “There are some incredible supporting performances. Hugh Grant as an exiled Oompa-Lompa called Lofty is just wonderful madness. It’s obvious the actor gets a kick when he rips into himself, going full aristo by revealing his name is ‘Lofty,’ (spoken with true rahhh intonation), the tallest of the Oompa-Loompas. Rowan Atkinson is on autopilot as a corrupt priest taking chocolate bribes with Bean-era facial gymnastics, and Matt Lucas’ Prodnose gets the most hilarious lines of all. “We fart them out of our botties,” he says as he trumps his way to the roof in the flying scene. It has Little Britain energy without the punching down.”
GQ Magazine: “enjoy what is undoubtedly the sweetest tale on screen since our emotional support duffle-coat-wearing bear.”
Deadline.com: “King was notably responsible for the two best live-action family films from classic children’s stories in recent years, Paddington and Paddington II. With Wonka, he proves he has the golden ticket to make this often too-undervalued genre a pleasure no matter what your age. It is a spirit-lifting delight.”
Entertainment Weekly: “Wonka as a whole has the touch of the British music hall about it in its narrative rhythms and tinkling musical numbers. The best part of that tradition it borrows, however, is the ways in which it revels in its own ridiculousness (nothing in a movie this year is more inventive or dryly hilarious than the notion of a Chocolate Cartel and their devilish deal with a chocolate-obsessed cleric and chocoholic monks, who, yes, do perform Gregorian chants about sweets).”
The Telegraph: ***** “The brains behind Paddington – plus a charming Timothée Chalamet – give Dahl a Goon Show-ish prequel full of irresistible velvety sweetness.”
NME: **** “Some of the plot twists are obvious, but Wonka has charm, heart and eye-popping visuals from start to finish. Only the dubious decision to encase one chocolate-gobbling baddie in a fat suit leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste. A scene-stealing Grant provides the comic highlights as Lofty, a supercilious Oompa Loompa with a grudge against Chalamet’s title character, while the film’s emotional beats come from Willy’s flowering friendship with book-loving orphan Noodle (Calah Lane). Wonka isn’t quite an immaculate confection, but it’s moreish enough to become a future festive favourite. You’ll want to tuck right in.”
Wonka is out now in cinemas.