Charlie And The Chocolate Factory
This “faithful adaptation” of Roald Dahl’s classic novel, and de facto remake of the 1971 Gene Wilder childen’s favorite (and cult classic for LSD lovers everywhere), brings the unique visionary skills of Tim Burton to life yet again. As the opening titles began, I mused on how the music scores of composer Danny Elfman really do fit Burton’s films like a glove, despite the super CGI effects of candy being processed in the factory. The best scenes are definitely in the first 30-40 minutes as the art direction and Elfman’s cues set an evocative feeling of the world of Charlie Bucket, his family, and everyone else in Dahl’s original vision, even if it felt that Burton was rushing it thru. I found it a little interesting on how two of the main characters have been updated here: Violet Beauregarde has been changed to a super over-achiever, complete with a pushy stage mother, who among other things is an expert in the martial arts (her first scene actually has her beating the crap out of several grown men, jeez), while Mike Teevee has been rewritten as a video game fanatic and budding genius who got his Golden Ticket by cracking Wonka’s intricate “code” for the how the tickets are distributed, which is actually an improvement from the personality-devoid zombie from the earlier versions. Fortunately, the characters of Charlie, Augustus Gloop, and the legendary Veruca Salt remain untouched, which surely attests to the timelessness of the personas. As for the performances, Johnny Depp as Wonka can best be described as a true work of twisted whimsy. While it may be as Dahl intended, it’s still not as fascinating as Wilder’s portrayal: Wilder played Wonka with a wink and a smile, but still projected psychotic undertones that brought a sense of real danger to the character, especially during the famed boat ride sequence (which has been sadly neutered in this version). Depp is more of a arrogant fop, indifferent to the concerns of the children and parents but still seeming as harmless as a fly; Freddie Highmore as Charlie does a good job, bringing heart and soul as well as a sense of maturity to the part, unlike the wussy that was essayed by Peter Ostrum back in 1971; David Kelly tries but fails to top the grouchy but lovable Grandpa Joe that Jack Albertson did so well; Helena Bonham-Carter is nice to see as Charlie’s mother, even with bad teeth; Missi Pyle as Violet’s mother is rather frightening especially with the slightly implied sexual tension between her and Wonka; Veteran actor James Fox is still in fine form as Mr. Salt; AnnaSophia Robb as Violet, Jordan Fry as Mike, and Philip Wiegratz as Augustus are well cast, but Julia Winter (amazingly an unknown picked right off the streets) is to be commended for embodying the essence of Veruca Salt, in many ways the second most popular character behind Wonka, and arguably the greatest spoilt brat in the history of popular literature (so much so she even had a grunge rock band named after her). While it’s obvious Burton undertook this project due to the technology being available to bring this world to life (i.e. the squirrels), some comments have to be made about the changes that were made, mainly the subplot about Wonka’s childhood, where Burton comes close to making the same mistake he made with the Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow: I think I liked the Wonka character better when he was more of an enigma, as Dahl and Wilder had it, and all it really does is draw out the book’s ending needlessly, even if Christopher Lee as Dr. Wonka is pretty much perfect for the part. Then there’s Deep Roy as ALL the Oompa-Loompas, which makes him the hardest-working man in the film. Impressive, yes, but why the Oompa-Loompa songs (which used the lyrics originally written by Dahl in the book) were converted by Elfman into pop / rock standards is hard to figure out, and the “Mike Teevee” song (which attempts to spoof pop culture and even goes so far as to have the Oompa-Loompas performing as a heavy metal hair band) falls flat on its face. Still, overall, it’s an impressive work of imagination from the one of the most visionary directors of the modern era…
7/10