“Are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?” - Wicked
(Reviewing the film on its own. I have not seen the play.)
I have been pleasantly surprised in the past when it comes to musicals and so I hoped it would happen again. While I do mostly just enjoy two specific musical films, La La Land and The Greatest Showman, my apprehension to see any new ones remains. So when Wicked was announced as an upcoming two-part film series I wasn’t exactly on the list of people excited to see what they came up with. But I have people in my life who are excited and having my connections as I do, it would be a waste to pass on the opportunity to see Wicked at an early showing. And so I went and I took my mother to see the cinematic interpretation of Wicked (Part 1).
I think the best approach to any kind of genre is to start with story and bring along the elements of a comedy or a drama or horror or even a musical, depending on the goal of the final product. Horror, for example, only works if the story matters and that means its characters are an integral part of that process. The characters must matter for the horror to matter. If they’re stereotypical shells of human beings their fates no longer matter to the audience. I think this is true of any genre. If a drama is to hold weight, its story must coalesce with a cast of characters that bring with them complexities and nuance that real humans are made of. With comedy I think you can get away with typical kinds of characters but then I think comes the question of will your movie be remembered? With boring characters probably not.
Musicals are a story all the same and so the rules still very much apply. In La La Land it was about the characters’ dreams and what they were willing to do, willing to sacrifice and if they were to achieve their dreams, would they finally know happiness? The music was created to mirror their aspirations, their anxieties and their failures. By doing so the story carries throughout the music rather than being sidelined by it just to have some music and dance numbers out of some misplaced demand simply because it’s been labeled a musical. To make the characters matter, the music should follow suit.
This is why Wicked the movie absolutely works and shines not only as a musical but a dramatic epic surrounding themes of friendship, loyalty, perseverance, knowing one’s worth and drawing the line between right and wrong. The story comes first, and the enthralling music follows in theme and emotion. It’s a kind of partnership between story and music with a mutual end goal of finding the truth of each scene, of each character and of the movie as a whole.
I think the best thing it does is start off the story by exclaiming in powerful decree that the Wicked Witch of the West is dead. It drives home the point that her death is to be celebrated and remembered forever. Without a single tear of remorse among the villagers, Glinda tells them the saga of Elphaba and her humble, albeit complicated beginnings as a green child with inexplicable abilities. It’s a great idea opening with such a contrasting sentiment only to turn back time and discover someone we just witnessed being celebrated for dying, acting in good graces and well-intentioned motivations; in other words, a good person.
It brings about maddening questions like what could have possibly happened for someone who is so thoughtful, so kind-hearted and wholesome to become so celebrated for their ultimate demise. It immediately draws you in. It would be like Breaking Bad starting at the end, Heisenberg demolishing Nazis and freeing Jesse only to go back to the beginning to find a modest, unassuming, law abiding chemistry teacher of a normal high school in middle America, New Mexico. The journey of one extreme to another is a tantalizing premise not easy to ignore. I knew her end before the movie started, but to see its aftermath hooked me right away. And while its runtime can be a bit trying, clocking in at over two and a half hours, it rarely, if ever, drags. Some scenes maybe could have been shortened or cut altogether but nothing stands out as wholly unnecessary or egregious. It didn’t need to be as long as it is, but it never suffers as a result.
Wicked is the gloriously epic story of one unique girl’s journey from ostracized outcast to a powerhouse of legend and myth and her undeniable influence on the world of Oz and every last one of its citizens. Elphaba is, by most accounts, normal. Aside from the fact that she is quite literally green and has been known to, on occasion, make mystifying occurrences take place, she is an aspiring girl unknowingly destined for both greatness and infamy. Once Elphaba takes her place in history, the land of Oz will never be the same again.
The music is unceasingly entertaining and certainly has its standout moments. Everyone is fantastically grand in their delivery but as with the music having its towering sequences, two performances rise above the rest as the metaphorical glue holding this all together - Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, the two future witches for which all of Oz will know their names.
For now, for this story however, they are merely students of a gifted school discovering their immense differences but more compellingly, their irrefutable similarities. As Elphaba, Cynthia Erivo is powerfully emphatic and tragically alone and portrays both with amazing conviction. You can see and feel every ounce of her pain, celebrate every victory and ponder the ramifications that will lead her down a path of inescapable destiny. Every bit as entertaining, particularly on the funnier side of things, Ariana Granda as Glinda is brilliant both dramatically and most notably comedically. She is hilariously selfish and her delivery as the self-centered rich girl is one of the best parts of the film. They are both together and separately captivating in their performances, pitch perfect in every regard, musically and otherwise.
I didn’t expect to like this movie but I still hoped. Like La La Land and The Greatest Showman, I remained open enough for the messages and effort to seep through and like those movies, Wicked burrowed its way into my heart and made me a believer. It is a fully realized world of magic and spectacle, musically and visually, making for a tremendous, tragic and endearing story of two polar opposites finding one another on their respective journeys to discover who they are and who they will become in the land of beautiful Technicolor.
Rated PG For: some scary action, thematic material and brief suggestive material
Runtime: 160 minutes
After Credits Scene: No
Genre: Fantasy, Musical
Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh
Directed By: Jon M. Chu
Out of 10
Story: 9/ Acting: 9/ Directing: 9/ Visuals: 10
OVERALL: 9/10
Buy to Own: Yes.
Check out the trailer below:
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