Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory
Just like a list of ingredients for the perfect chocolate bar, the recipe for the perfect family film requires that you
include only the finest such ingredients in filmmaking. A good dose of imagination, plenty of heart, dedicated talent and
a storyline that makes every kid wish that they themselves were in the thick of the story being told. Charlie and The
Chocolate Factory offers up a sense of wonder, with all the double-coated, caramel-infused good times you could ever
need in a single film.
It helps when the story you're crafting your film around is based on one of the most popular children's stories of all
time, the one written by master children's author Roald Dahl. It's great to finally see a title from his extensive library
be given a decent degree of big-screen dedication. The story follows Charlie, who finds one the five fabled golden tickets
which allows the holder entry into the world's most magnificent chocolate factory, the one owned by the famous candy-making
legend and recluse Willy Wonka.
It's a story in which any ten year old could only ever wish to find themselves. But Charlie and The Chocolate
Factory is more than just watching some snot-nosed kid run lose in a chocolate factory and seeing him end up vomiting
chocolate at the end of it all, as would probably happen in reality. Not only does director Tim Burton allows all the heart
and soul that made the book so memorable to find its way into the film, he seemingly amplifies it. Call it sweet fluff,
with no design other than to pull on the heart strings, but if it were going to happen in any family film, then there's few
more appropriate than Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.
Charlie's family and Charlie himself are perfectly Dahl, which is arguably perfect Burton material. Down on their luck,
Charlie and his family seem stuck somewhere between poverty and death. As grim as that is, it works so well. It wouldn't
normally have to be believable, but Burton works such a warmth from his actors that we're almost convinced that it doesn't
matter so much that there's a hole in roof through which Charlie is exposed to winter's snow while he sleeps, because
there's love enough in the family to keep him warm at night. And what makes a tale like Charlie and The Chocolate
Factory work so well, unlike the complete disassociative Lemony Snicket, is that there's an important grounding
the audience finds with Charlie and his family before the weirdness sets in. But Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
doesn't reach classic status through Charlie and his family alone, there's a dark, almost sinister element to Wonka and his
factory that could easily result in young children questioning the actual contents of their next Freddo Frog.
On the back of an extensive career, Depp has found himself at the top of his game in Charlie. As far as children are
concerned, Wonka is a maker of dreams, however in addition, if he didn't own a chocolate factory and command the
imagination of the planet, the term eccentric would apply less so than certifiable and dangerously sadistic. Deep gives a
great performance as Wonka, so much that when he plainly relishes in the demise of the tour's children, we're sympathetic
to his enjoyment of it all. It also helps Wonka's cause that the scene in the book where Charlie and Grandpa Joe test a
candy they weren't supposed to and then float up to the roof, and are subsequently reprimanded by Wonka, was removed.
It's true that the trailers for Charlie and The Chocolate Factory could, at one's kindest, be described as
'obscenely strange', but all the seemingly random, out of context clips, eventually make sense. At least, as much sense as
can be made by the idea of never-ending gum or chocolate churned by waterfall. Burton's lavishly bright and beautiful sets
bring as much sense as is necessary to Dahl's great original work. There some devilishly appropriate flashback scenes with
Christopher Lee which gives the film another nod of respectable sentimentality towards the end. It's a very tight story
which remains engaging from beginning to end. It's all helped along by some visually stunning sets and a radiant cast of
five children that fail to put a foot wrong. It is really weird, but that's what helps make Charlie and The Chocolate
Factory easily the best family film this year.
out of ten
Reviewed by Paul Boschen
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