Tim Burton is dark... Everyone knows that. It’s apparent in every one of his movies to date. Charlie and The Chocolate factory is no exception in this regard... Somehow the man has taken Roald Dahl’s enchanting children’s story and transformed it into a surreal sort of funfair ride, with trademark Burtonesque weirdness at every turn.
For those who haven’t read the book, and I’m surprised at how many of you there are - the plot revolves around Charlie Bucket, an ordinary, unremarkable and extremely poor lad and Willy Wonka, an eccentric, highly secretive chocolate maker. To cut a long story short, 5 very lucky people are to win a tour of Willy Wonka’s amazing chocolate factory, by means of 5 golden tickets packed randomly into Wonka chocolate bars. One of these winners will also win a very special surprise. 4 of the tickets are found by the most obnoxious children imaginable and the last one of course, by some bizzarre stroke of luck, comes into Charlie’s possession. No prizes for guessing who wins the prize at the end...
Burton’s Wonka, in stark contrast to Dahl’s lovable character comes across as a somewhat sinister, unstable oddball. At first I thought maybe he was going for a realistic portrayal of a man who has isolated himself in his own private wonderland to escape the pressures of the real world, but then I thought ’’Hang on! This movie’s about rivers of melted chocolate, ice cream that’ll never melt and everlasting gobstoppers! Realism is clearly not a factor here...’’ So now I’m more inclined to agree with several who’ve suggested he’s probably making a dig at Michael Jackson!
In any event, the part is played to perfection by Johnny Depp.
I felt Charlie’s character could have been handled better though. He comes across as this perfect, goody goody, every mother’s dream come true type of kid, which we all know doesn’t exist! He does as he’s told, speaks when he’s spoken to, comes up with all the right answers and in short, has no character at all! I should say that this is not the actor’s fault. I simply think the character was badly thought out to begin with. The Charlie from the earlier movie, Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory had more spark. Remember the scene where he almost screwed up his chances to win? A scene that was omitted from this movie for some unfathomable reason...
The other kids are great... You’ll hate them the minute you see them and since that is the desired effect, clearly they have played their parts well. Grandpa Joe is a laugh, and is quite true to the original. Of the minor characters I’d have to say the only one who truly stood out was Grandma Georgina. She has very few lines, but their delivery is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face...
My only major gripe about the movie is the introduction of a ghastly, inappropriate, wholly unnecessary side plot, possibly to explain why Mr. Wonka is as crazy as he is. I won’t spoil it by saying what it is, and those of you who haven’t read the book or seen the earlier movie probably won’t notice anyway, but let me just say that Roald Dahl wasn’t known for sickly sweet feelgood endings and he’d probably have been just a little ticked off by it.
All in all though, the movie is extremely entertaining, with some absolutely hilarious moments. It has some nice special effects... The opening sequence and the glass elevator sequences come to mind, but nothing unexpected or revolutionary. Tim Burton has taken a much loved classic and imbued it with his own personal style without taking too much away from the original story.
Someone once said that you should never judge a book by its movie. I believe you’ll enjoy this movie more if you don’t judge it by its book! And if you’re a Tim Burton or Johnny Depp fan, this movie certainly won’t disappoint.