For the three of you who don't know WICKED, or as it's titled on the film WICKED PART 1, is the cinematic version of the first act of the Broadway play that runs longer than the entire Broadway play. It's the based on the novel by Gregory Maguire and it tells the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz. It explains how she came to be viewed as evil because she took on the establishment and a leader who was all smoke and mirrors. Part 2 is due in theaters a year from now.
I went into WICKED with baggage. I have loved the show since I saw it the first couple days of previews on Broadway. I am also connected to anything Oz cinema because my great grandmother’s cousin (and thus my cousin twice or three times removed) was Margret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch in the MGM classic. (For the record she was a lovely woman). As a result, I have very strong ideas about what I wanted in a WICKED film.
The short version of the film is that it is good. It’s not perfect, I have a lot of issues (see below) but when the film clicked, I was a sobbing with joy. But there are issues that kept it from being truly great.
Some of the problems come from the fact that the film doesn’t know if it’s a film musical or a stage musical or if it’s a real-world film or all on sets or what exactly it is. It feels like it is trying to be everything all at once and is nothing-only working in the moments when it decides what it wants to be.
The film begins in a real world Muchkinland that was shot outside. It’s a sequence that feels real world. The film then shifts into the movie world, where everything has more than a touch of Hollywood creation. The problem with this is that the various lands never seem to connect. Munchkin land feels different than unconnected to Shizz which feels unconnected to the Emerald City. Each of the worlds feels real unto themselves but not connected to each other. Each world feels like a separate part of Delos where Westworld takes place.
The musical numbers are wildly uneven. The staging runs from awful (the opening) to all time classic (Dancing Through Life). Some scenes such as Popular or What is This Feeling are fun. Some of the staging such as I’m Not That Girl or The Wizard and I, feel as though they didn’t know what to do so they just have Elphaba walk. They largely destroy Defying Gravity by having it sung, not in one show stopping whole, but in pieces with breaks between lines. I went from thinking they F-ing nailed it at the start as Elphaba climbed the stairs to staring in horror as the song paused for action and dialog and the much-heralded vocal acrobatics that end the song are left unconnected to anything (exactly like in the current Target commercial where Cynthia Erivo steps out to stop a guy from singing and just does the final notes)
The pacing of the film is off. By doubling the length of the first act the film’s forward momentum stalls. While the film still moves, the rhythms that come from Schwartz’s score, and which give the show a breakneck speed, are gone. We suddenly have time to think about the plot and huge holes begin to appear. You realize that the characters are not as well drawn as they should have been. I never realized the plot problems until the screening because on stage I never had to think, and the music made me feel what was missing. Now the film has to rely on what now seems to be an inadequate script. Words replace the emotion of the music. Relying on dialog is a mistake because there are details missing. The characters now feel like there are dead spots in their souls because in adding time to the story they added action but not character details.
The performances are mostly good. Ethan Slater as Bok and Marissa Bode as Nessarose are saddled with characters that were always under written. While that is still the case here, both of them make them infinitely better than they are in the show, even though they are still not given a great deal to do. Michelle Yeoh is fine as Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum is creepy as hell as the Wizard (though the role seems to have been reduced from the play).
Ariana Grande is very good as Glinda. The trouble is she is essentially channeling Kristen Chenoweth. While she is absolutely fine, she never quite makes the role her own… though I blame the script because most of what is here is just what’s in the play and she isn't given any real meat, she is just a sweet airhead (I know she gets better in Act 2). In expanding the film they didn't give her any character bits and we are just left with her songs.
Cynthia Erivo is glorious as Elphaba. She is a revelation, and while you sense there should be more to her (thank you poor writing of the new material) she kicks it into orbit with her mere presence.
The real revelation though is Jonathan Slater as Fiyero. He is on another plane of existence than the rest of the cast and he makes the role truly his own (and I say that because until now Norbert Leo Butz in the original Broadway production was the owner of the role in my soul). This should make him a superstar because he is that good. His performance of Dancing Through Life is one of the best things I’ve ever seen on screen. He is the best thing in the film - and probably the best reason to see the film.
While I absolutely love chunks of this so much is off that I’m deeply disappointed. They somehow traded the real pure emotion of the show for spectacle. There are flashes when director John Chu understood what he should have done, but mostly he takes the easy unimaginative way out.
My bitching aside it is worth seeing.
Lastly, I do have to say that I am delighted that in age where the right wing Republican insanity has taken hold and given us a Wizard, er President who has fooled the people into believing he is things that he is most certainly not, WICKED, a film about taking on such a menace is going to be one of the big films of the year. More so since the film is very openly queer, a fact that the same right leaning fans will never openly acknowledge.
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