Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
cast: Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore
The good: the weird Tim Burton style
The bad: lacking in dramatic charge
Tim Burton is probably Hollywood’s most eccentric filmmaker, credited for weirdly distinctive films such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and the upcoming Corpse Bride. Thankfully, he brings his usual charming (some say psychedelic) style to his latest, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Charlie (Freddie Highmore) is “the luckiest boy on earth” after winning one of the five golden tickets giving pass to the most famous chocolate factory in the world. Charlie is just a regular boy. In fact, maybe less than regular as he lives with his extended family in a house resembling the Leaning Tower of Pisa and eats only cabbage soup. The factory is owned by Willy Wonka (Johhny Depp), a world-renowned genius candy maker, who closed his factory not a long time ago when some of his workers sold trade secrets to rival companies. “Have you ever seen a single person coming into that factory, or coming out?”, said one of Charlie’s relatives. We would later come to know that the workers aren’t the usual.
The film is hugely interesting up until this point, prior to their entry in the factory. Five kids with one guardian each are given a tour of the chocolate factory by Willy Wonka himself. Strangely enough, the film goes downhill from here. Given the title of the film, it’s strange to see less of Charlie and very little, actually, of the much-hyped factory. The factory is indeed strange, wonderful, and magnificently brought to life by Burton’s imagination, but its play in the overall impact of the film seems small. Adding to the problem, the tour inside the factory becomes formulaic as there’s an obvious pattern on what’s going to happen next. As all the other kids except Charlie fall one after another due to their own inherent character flaws, we notice their cardboard cut-out nature.
The movie, despite an unmistakably kiddy aesthetic, is actually quite dark in its theme and in its events. You won’t notice it with all the color and the crazy ideas (cotton candy made from sheep wool, anyone?), but I don’t think a young girl being harassed by a group of squirrels spells the word K-I-D-D-Y.
Despite the formulaic nature of the film, it could have been tremendously enjoyable still if there was any semblance of concrete message behind it. This message, considering the target audience for the film, could have elevated its dramatic impact, but with nary a memorable dramatic moment, the film becomes a garbage bin of small, scattered, and under-developed lessons haphazardly thrown together. When the most memorable line goes, “Its candy, that’s why it doesn’t have a point”, it makes the whole experience all the more forgettable.
All in all, the film is still much better than your usual factory tour. Don’t expect too much beyond what is initially offered, and you’d have a pretty good time. (3/5)
The good: the weird Tim Burton style
The bad: lacking in dramatic charge
Tim Burton is probably Hollywood’s most eccentric filmmaker, credited for weirdly distinctive films such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and the upcoming Corpse Bride. Thankfully, he brings his usual charming (some say psychedelic) style to his latest, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Charlie (Freddie Highmore) is “the luckiest boy on earth” after winning one of the five golden tickets giving pass to the most famous chocolate factory in the world. Charlie is just a regular boy. In fact, maybe less than regular as he lives with his extended family in a house resembling the Leaning Tower of Pisa and eats only cabbage soup. The factory is owned by Willy Wonka (Johhny Depp), a world-renowned genius candy maker, who closed his factory not a long time ago when some of his workers sold trade secrets to rival companies. “Have you ever seen a single person coming into that factory, or coming out?”, said one of Charlie’s relatives. We would later come to know that the workers aren’t the usual.
The film is hugely interesting up until this point, prior to their entry in the factory. Five kids with one guardian each are given a tour of the chocolate factory by Willy Wonka himself. Strangely enough, the film goes downhill from here. Given the title of the film, it’s strange to see less of Charlie and very little, actually, of the much-hyped factory. The factory is indeed strange, wonderful, and magnificently brought to life by Burton’s imagination, but its play in the overall impact of the film seems small. Adding to the problem, the tour inside the factory becomes formulaic as there’s an obvious pattern on what’s going to happen next. As all the other kids except Charlie fall one after another due to their own inherent character flaws, we notice their cardboard cut-out nature.
The movie, despite an unmistakably kiddy aesthetic, is actually quite dark in its theme and in its events. You won’t notice it with all the color and the crazy ideas (cotton candy made from sheep wool, anyone?), but I don’t think a young girl being harassed by a group of squirrels spells the word K-I-D-D-Y.
Despite the formulaic nature of the film, it could have been tremendously enjoyable still if there was any semblance of concrete message behind it. This message, considering the target audience for the film, could have elevated its dramatic impact, but with nary a memorable dramatic moment, the film becomes a garbage bin of small, scattered, and under-developed lessons haphazardly thrown together. When the most memorable line goes, “Its candy, that’s why it doesn’t have a point”, it makes the whole experience all the more forgettable.
All in all, the film is still much better than your usual factory tour. Don’t expect too much beyond what is initially offered, and you’d have a pretty good time. (3/5)
posted by NaCl at Saturday, August 13, 2005
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