Film: Wicked

 

GENRE: Musical
RATING: PG for thematic material
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 40 minutes
PLATFORM: Movie Theatre
STARRING: Cynthia Erivo (The Outsider, Pinocchio, Genius, Harriet)
Ariana Grande (Hairspray Live!, Don’t Look Up); Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton)
DIRECTOR: Jon M. Chu (In the Heights, Crazy Rich Asians)
WRITERS: Winnie Holzman (Wicked original musical, My So-Called Life)
Dana Fox (The Lost City, Cruella, Isn’t it Romantic, The Wedding Date)
PLOT: Elphaba, the green witch, and Glinda becomes friends at school long before Dorothy arrives at Oz.    

FULL DISCLOSURE: I’ve seen the Broadway musical six times.

STORY STUFF: I was a little worried going in. This film has been so overblown in its marketing that I was skeptical that it could live up to the hype. I was more than pleasantly surprised. This film does an outstanding job of capturing all the cleverness and amazingness of the stage musical and kicks it up a notch with awesome production design and fun add-ons. Be aware that this is just part one, so it ends when the intermission would happen, which happens to be ‘Defying Gravity’, one of the best act one closing numbers (behind Les Mis’ ‘One Day More’). Despite my love of the songs ‘Popular’ and ‘Defying Gravity,’ I would say my favourite performance is ‘What Is This Feeling?’ which involves the classmates and a lot of great back and forth. While I think the running time is long, I’m not actually sure what I would cut out of this adaptation. You could shave a lingering moment here and there but not much more. My bigger concern is that this first half of the musical is far better than the second half as it has a lot more catchy songs. I hope they can wow me with the second half.  

ACTING STUFF: Not surprisingly, Ariana Grande is perfectly cast as Galinda or later Glinda. She has the singing chops and tosses her hair like a pro. She is mesmerizing and I hear may get an Oscar nomination for her efforts. Erivo also has an amazing voice and plays Elphaba well although I wish there was a bit more apprehension with her friendship with Glinda. The rest of the cast is dynamite and show their enthusiasm on the screen. Jeff Goldblum is fun as the wizard. I always enjoy Bowen Yang (SNL). There is also a wonderful cameo moment I won’t spoil but you can probably guess.

ARTISTIC STUFF: Production design is amazing with it’s beautiful architecture and intricate design. It is a feast for the eyes. It is definitely needed to be seen on the large screen. The costumes match the beauty and weirdness of the stage production. The singing is incredible although I wish my theatre had more surround sound.  

VERDICT: Five stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You’ve seen the musical or haven’t but wanted to
UPCOMING REVIEW:  Gladiator II