Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Review

Big in budget and big on the Oompa Loompas, the fantasy, family comedy contains one too many cavities.

Entering the studio-friendly neighborhood of needless remakes, this becomes Tim Burton’s second crack at the re-imagining of a classic. While Planet of the Apes left some fans of both the sci-fi genre and the filmmaker perplexed, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory offers just a twinge of Burton’s brand of his twisted humor. While covered in fantasy sprinkles and ‘dark’ chocolate, such qualities in auteur spirit and tone aren’t long-lasting enough especially for those generations familiar with the already vividly imaginative book and/or the film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

He has an odd relationship with children, he lives in a palace where children love to play in, he has a genderless disposition and his facial complexion is closer to an unhealthy white than a normal color. It’s the same old, same old, except that a little more of the narrative focuses on the Charlie character than the Willy Wonka one and here the theme of a bad childhood thanks to over-zealous and envious adults plays more of a role – the tortured flashbacks of a maligned childhood with a Hannibal lecture garb are delicious moments of noir scribe. Particularly non-touching but still a delight are the gold ticket lottery moments shared between a grandfather and Charlie, but everything else simply cooks too long in caricatures garnishing and un-amusing song number filling.

The problem with this movie is that it is the sort of conception that is desperately in need of a Captain Jack performance or something substantial to take the already familiar further places than the paltry special effects and set design. Depp’s creepy performance in an asexual skin isn’t terrible, but nor is it memorable and the film’s protagonist in Charlie and actor Freddie Highmore doesn’t do much to explore the wonders of the obsession between sugar and a child. The candy universe set construction seems to be the only score card to measure the film’s enjoyment level – and when a bunch of synchronized squirrels leaves more of an impression than other visual tricks then even a sea-filled sight of Oompa Loompas fails to make a mark.

If acid-trip is what you are looking for, then it’s an acid trip you’ll need before you decide to shell out another 10 dollars for something you’ve seen before. The folks at Warner Bros. needed to do a lot more than tie-in a Kubrick reference, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is no Beatles song in reverse, it’s a sometimes enjoyable film of bursting gooey colors and German chocoholics but it comes across on one too many planes as a film that is as irritable as the personality of Mr.Wonka. Burton and Depp reteam a little later on in the year – for fans, the gold ticket may be found with their following Corpse Bride.

Rating 2 stars