‘Wonka’ review: Timothée Chalamet charms in sweet, serviceable prequel

Movie review

The words “A Paul King Confection” appear on-screen in the opening moments of “Wonka,” causing hopes to soar, both for the delicious turn of phrase unusual in a director’s credit, and for the promise of something as quirkily delightful as King’s two “Paddington” movies (particularly the second). Alas, perhaps that (candy) bar was just a bit high. There’s much that delights in “Wonka,” a handsomely designed semi-musical prequel to the Roald Dahl book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (filmed memorably in 1971 — as “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” — and somewhat less memorably in 2005), but it feels like a good effort rather than a masterpiece; a bit of tasty but slightly stale chocolate, you might say.  

Timothée Chalamet here plays a young Willy Wonka, an inventor newly arrived in a magical city to make his fortunate as a chocolatier — only to run up against numerous roadblocks, including a swindling landlady (Olivia Colman), a resentful Oompa Loompa (Hugh Grant) and a trio of evil bureaucrats known as the Chocolate Cartel. With the assistance of a resourceful orphan named Noodle (Calah Lane), things work themselves out, as they generally do in prequels.

“Wonka” is the kind of movie that’s full of moments of enchantment, such as Grant’s delightfully grumpy rendition of the Oompa Loompa song, a breathtaking sequence in which Willy and Noodle soar through the night skies under a lollipop-colored balloon bouquet, Colman’s gleeful wickedness, Jim Carter (always and forever Carson the butler on “Downton Abbey”) in a nightcap, and Chalamet’s exuberant hair, which as always steals every scene and quite possibly has its own agent.

But while Chalamet’s performance is thoroughly charming, it lacks the feathery strangeness Gene Wilder brought to the role long ago; this Willy is sweet and nice and seems well-brought-up, and I found myself wondering a lot more about what kind of pomade he used on his curls (seriously, they sprung right back up after a near-drowning in chocolate; what strange magic is this?) than whether he’d be able to save the day. And the songs … well, I’d tell you more but they’re instantly forgettable, and I forgot them. Though some of us might prefer to stay home for a “Paddington” double feature, it’s no hardship at all to sit through “Wonka,” which will make good holiday fun for families. I’m just hoping, should “Wonka 2” be on the horizon, that things get a little odder next time.