Saw it. Here's what I think is up: SPOILERS POSSIBLE (But come on you've read the damned book. Or at least you've seen the Gene Wilder version. Right? If not, out of the thread till you've done your homework!)
The book doesn't actually have any conflict to speak of, as a friend of mine pointed out as we were leaving. The bad kids— all lose, and are predestined to. The good kid— gets everything he could possibly want at the end, and is predestined to. Even the Oompa Loompas presumably dwell happily forever under the benevolent protection of their paternally-loving overlord. The backstory in Burton's movie does hang a conflict in there. But it's an entirely internal conflict, centered in a character who is not the protagonist. This is unusual, especially in a movie which is still, abominable squirrels notwithstanding, a children's movie. So I think the narrative feels disjointed because Burton added something the book was missing, but didn't bother to stir very thoroughly.
I think Depp was modeling some of his portrayal from Jacko, which was creepily appropriate. Depp's Wonka did manage to unnerve me, and I'm not sure if it was the vague (and sometimes not so vague) perviness, or the way he could be childlike one minute and methodically eliminating children the next, or else he was so obviously emotionally crippled that he seemed unpredictable because of it— I think the flashbacks added to this.
Aside from the backstory and its resolution, this was, essentially, the book. It was more faithful to Dahl's storyline, I think, than the Wilder version (although I have yet to go back and rewatch that one).
Elfman's score was still the same one he uses for everything, whetted slightly to develop an edge. Well, as long as he's been rubbing it against Burton's movies, it would have to develop an edge eventually. Anyway, it wasn't distracting.
The bad kids were wonderfully hateful. It was very necessary to make Violet's "sin" something a bit worse than chewing gum, and that was done well. They accomplished passable acting for much of the movie. A nice performance by Christopher Lee as Wonka's dad.
All in all I enjoyed it, laughed all the way through it with the slightly uncomfortable laughter Roald Dahl stories usually inspire in me— only more so because this was blown up really big. I think in the Wilder version it was mostly cheery with creepiness coming in bursts; in this one my discomfort with Wonka was pretty much continuous. I'm not sure what that says about it.
So, question for other people who have seen it. What was that about not wanting to talk about the cotton candy sheep? |
