Originally published 7/17/2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Director: Tim Burton
Writers: John August, based on the novel by Roald Dahl
Producers: Brad Grey, Richard D. Zanuck
Stars: Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, David Kelly, Helena Bonham Carter, Noah Taylor, Missi Pyle, James Fox, Deep Roy, Christopher Lee, Adam Godley, Franziska Troegner, Annasophia Robb, Julia Winter, Jordan Fry, Philip Wiegratz
The Motion Picture Association of America cautions moviegoers about film content some might find objectionable. It warns about violence, or language, or drug use, or daring to acknowledge the existence of a thing called S-E-X. Distinctive movies call for distinctive warnings – Twister received a PG-13 for “intense depiction of very bad weather”. They awarded the otherwise harmless family film Ice Age a PG for “mild peril”. Rob Zombie must have been a proud filmmaker the day his House of 1,000 Corpses featured a label of not just violence, but “sadistic violence/gore”.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the second feature adaptation of Roald Dahl’s delightful, deeply eccentric and slightly ominous morality play for children, features a rating I never thought I would see, and which disappoints me. It gets a PG for “quirky situations”. Do we actually live in a world where parents are warned against whimsy and abnormality when picking entertainment for their children? Dahl understood that those qualities are exactly what children need more of, and while two of modern film’s most sincere and heartfelt madmen are given a great deal of money to turn his cracked wonder of a book into a special effects extravaganza, the sum total comes off as unsure of itself, almost as if it feels the need to apologize for being so strange and justify itself.
If a re-make couldn’t be avoided at all, it is hard to imagine a better team for it in theory than director Tim Burton and Johnny Depp (previous teamings: Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow). The story of the magical chocolate factory and Willy Wonka, its resident mysterious misfit genius, might have been the culmination of all their years fearlessly celebrating the lonely and extraordinary. But they feel uncharacteristically aimless, trapped in a no-man’s-land between the timeless source material and the Hollywood formula that wants to smash it into paste thinking this will make it more likeable.
As in previous versions, our hero is Charlie Bucket (Finding Neverland’s Freddie Highmore), a plucky but impoverished young man who lives in a one-room shack with his parents and four grandparents. They live on cabbage soup and the shack tilts at fearful angles; just walking in the front door can make you tumble if you are not careful. None of his grandparents have left their giant double bed in over a decade, and except for the still sprightly Grandpa Joe (Waking Ned Devine’s David Kelly), are sinking into various stages of cynicism and dementia.
What gives Charlie’s life joy is candy, particularly the amazing candy produced by Willy Wonka. No one knows how he makes it, since no one has set foot in the factory, or even laid eyes on him, in over a decade, and he fired all his employees. Spies stealing his magical recipes drove him into seclusion, and now no one gets in.
But suddenly Mr. Wonka announces he will open his gates for five lucky children; whomever finds the golden tickets hidden inside five Wonka bars scattered across the globe. Charlie gets one candy bar a year, for his birthday, and the film perfectly captures the reverence and feeling of power evoked when a child unwraps a treat slowly, wanting to prolong the experience.
Without going into detail but acknowledging the title does not make it a surprise, suffice it to say eventually fortune smiles on Charlie and he finds the last golden ticket. The other four children are the familiar collection of grotesques – porcine Augustus Gloop (Philip Wiegratz), spoiled Veruca Salt (Julia Winter), competitive and elitist gum-chewer Violet Beauregarde (Annasophia Robb) and the cocky, hyperactive Mike Teavee (Jordan Fry).
Each gets to drag one authority figure with them; and we can see each parent as equally guilty in their child’s enablement. Worth particular mention is Missi Pyle, who plays Mrs. Beauregarde and is one of our most underrated comic actors. She has been stealing scenes out from under more famous comedians for years in the likes of Galaxy Quest and Dodgeball; there is something indefinable about her look – the eyes are just slightly larger than normal, the angles of her face just a little more pronounced, and she uses it as a most gifted mug. Mrs. Beauregarde is a hideous extension of the ex-beauty-queen stereotype, and Pyle is pitch-perfect.
More inexplicable is Depp’s Willy Wonka. In the psychedelic, daft and wonderful original, Gene Wilder was every bit as confounding with his poetic asides and brain-freezing non-sequiters, but you could see his ho-hum acceptance of the horrible fates awaiting naughty children in his factory came not from sadism, but weary disappointment. He viewed childhood with wounded romance, a kid himself inside who desperately wanted children to understand the magic of their time in life, and resigning himself that many never would. Someone as pure of heart as Charlie could see him for what he is, and the previous movie spent the time detailing the sad rhythms of Charlie’s life so you could appreciate the decency it forged in him.
This new movie, on the other hand, reduces Charlie to spectator status so Depp can take center stage. There is a logic behind this, as Depp is the expensive actor and the name on the poster. But while Freddie Highmore is focused and never false portraying Charlie, he has little to do but stare goggle-eyed and whisper the odd uplifting platitude.
Depp’s performance, meanwhile, is off-putting anarchy. His Willy Wonka is touchy, defensive, resentful, often openly hostile and petty. While Depp’s imagination is always watchable and produces many delightful moments, when added up we never sense this is a soul who wants to bring joy to the world.
Even more damaging to the emotional framework is a new subplot about Wonka’s father (Christopher Lee). In flashbacks Dr. Wonka is an angry, candy-hating dentist who keeps young Willy’s head locked in bracework and tosses his Halloween takings into the fireplace. All of the compelling enigmatic qualities of this iconic character are now jammed into Psych 101 claptrap, and a story that was originally about a poor little boy rewarded for being good now becomes a story about a poor little boy drafted to help a millionaire confront his daddy issues. What child wants to hear that story?
The magic of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and Dr. Suess’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas, another book whose movie adaptation made the dingbat mistake of grafting a hoary “unhappy childhood” onto the plot) is that the character doesn’t need explaining. Left undefined, they inspire the imagination. Characters like Willy Wonka don’t need their Freudian skeletons dragged clattering out of the closet because the story isn’t supposed to be about them.
Don’t get me wrong, there is so much beautiful stuff in this movie, pushing further the colorful fancy of the first and marrying it smartly to many of Burton’s visual trademarks. Alex McDowell’s production design is astonishing. The Oompa Loompas (all played by a miniaturized and digitally replicated dwarf actor named Deep Roy) are a more sinister bunch, and composer Danny Elfman uses Dahl’s original lyrics for their songs but with some very modern settings. I also note that they salute by clapping folded arms across their chest, like the alien conspirators in Ed Wood’s opus Plan 9 From Outer Space, and that surely is no accident but is neither here nor there.
This is a funny, bizarre movie, more than you would expect these days from a studio film. It even includes portions of the book left out of the previous adaptation, such as the nut-cracking squirrels and the tale of the foolish Prince Pondicherry and his palace of chocolate. I liked it more than probably comes off in this review. But deep in the guts of this new version a change was made, and I think was out of fear that Willy Wonka was too “quirky” for kids, and needed to be explained. The damage this does is incalculable.