WONKA

A prequel to WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, Timothée Chalamet stars as the young, down on his luck Wonka. Having been a seaman for the previous 7-years, Willy docks in an undisclosed location (although by the signage it appears to be either Germany, Austria, or some other German speaking country) to make his dreams come true of opening his own chocolate shop. However, he's soon tricked into a 10-year servitude that he attempts to free himself (and his fellow captures) from sooner-rather-than later by selling his chocolate as a street vendor. However, the local "chocolate cartel" (made up of 3 companies) is not in favor of Willy disrupting their market and try to prevent him from selling chocolate in their town. To begin with, I'll answer the question many probably have: yes, Chalamet is a passable Wonka and doesn't sully the image Gene Wilder so fondly left behind. My expectations for this were in the "meh" range and this still disappointed. The film starts out with promise, sucking the viewer in early but by the second and most definitely by the third act, the story and pacing of the film lost most of the steam it had built up. Keeping in step with the previous films, this is a musical but the number of tunes is kept to a minimum. Even though he got some backlash from the trailer Hugh Grant is delightful as the Oompa-Loompa. Overall, the film begins decent enough but about midway through, strays off pace and never recovers. Not a great entry into the Roald Dahl/Willy Wonka franchise and most definitely something you can wait to stream. 5/10