‘Wonka’ Review: Timothee Chalamet Tries to Save a Sickly Sweet Prequel

Despite some gorgeous production design the rest of the film fails to give director Paul King much to work with

"Wonka"
"Wonka" (CREDIT: Warner Bros. Discovery)

Paul King’s “Wonka” isn’t a movie about chocolate so much as it is an actual piece of chocolate. It’s a great, big, hollow confection, lacking in any of the flavor and ingenuity that made Willy Wonka and his candy so famous in the first place. “Wonka” is so sickeningly sweet you’ll wish your theater’s concession stand sold big buckets of salt. (Then again, they kind of do.)

“Wonka” is a prequel to “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” the 1971 adaptation of Road Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” It was a box office flop that eventually became a cult classic and, later, a mainstream classic.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.