Availability: In theaters nationally and internationally. Streaming expected in February or March 2025; see JustWatch here for future streaming information.
Wickedness and Defiance Lite
There is undeniable appeal in the re-framing of a villain into a hero, seeing a story from the “other’s” point of view. In a fairy tale, that re-framing also has the potential of turning a sickly-sweet heroine story into something more compelling. The full-on extravaganza “Wicked” is the latest in this line of reverse perspectives.
The set-up for the reversal comes in the form of a flashback, as Good Witch Glinda explains to the munchkins her “friendship” with the Wicked Witch. Galinda (pop music star Ariana Grande), who will in due time turn into the Good Witch Glinda, is the slim, blonde university student, always pretty in pink, manipulating those around her as if it were her right (“I’m used to getting what I want”). Elphaba (the multi-talented and Oscar-nominated Cynthia Erivo), who will become the Wicked Witch of the West, is more solidly built, dark of countenance, and green of skin. While Galinda is the popular girl at school (documented in the musical number, “Popular”), Elphaba is the consummate outsider.
The plot is complex, not one any child could follow, and some of it of questionable necessity or purpose.
The plot is complex, not one any child could follow, and some of it of questionable necessity or purpose. Elphaba is born the green infant of a mother who had an affair, an affair that happens so quickly one hardly notices it—an allegedly intentional move to get a PG rating. At the same time, this quick take revives the shopworn idea that wanton women will pay for their sins—in this case by birthing a green baby. That the midwife and OB doctor both are talking animals is a hint of a plot development to come. Rejected by her father and with her mother mysteriously dead, Elphaba and her sister Nessarose (inexplicably—it’s never a factor in the plot—in a wheelchair, played by Marissa Bode, an actress who uses a wheelchair) head off to Shiz University, the setting for the encounter between the future Good and Wicked Witches.
The munchkin scenes are frenetic, over-populated, over-produced, and a trifle boring.
Before the flashback, we are treated to Munchkinland, which was a highlight of the original movie, then featuring a vaudeville and circus troop, “Singer’s Midgets” (the latter word now considered offensive). The munchkin scenes (don’t look for dwarfs, this is 2024—the munchkins are made to look short via camera angles and focus on children) are frenetic, over-populated, over-produced, and a trifle boring. When not boring, what should be a community is a mob, complete with gleeful munchkins burning an enormous and scary effigy of the Wicked Witch (and that was okay for a PG rating?).
You win a tap from Glinda’s wand if you can keep track of all the secondary characters with strange names that come and go.
The university scenes are similarly over-produced and over-populated. In an attempt to channel Harry Potter’s school setting, the result is a poor rendition not of a community, but of exclusive cliques and back-biting alternating with perky music-and-dance numbers. You win a tap from Glinda’s wand if you can keep track of all the secondary characters with strange names that come and go—among them students Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey from TV’s “Bridgerton”), the self-described “shallow” hunk who courts both leading women; Pfannee (“Saturday Night Live’s” Bowen Yang), a fawning—pun intended—sycophant to Galinda; and Boq (Ethan Slater), another Munchkinlander mooning after Galinda, who’s asked to make nice with the girl in a wheelchair. And that doesn’t count the professors, including Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All At Once” [2022]) as Madame Morrible, Shiz U’s magic teacher, and Dr. Dillamond, the erudite talking goat scientist (voiced—not seen—by the only actor with dwarfism in the film, the incomparable Peter Dinklage).
At right, Jeff Goldblum
as the Wizard and
Michelle Yeoh as
Madame Morrible, two wonderful villains.
The plot thickens with Dillamond and other talking animal professors being driven out by mysterious forces (Blackshirts?) and herded into cages where they will lose their language. Elphaba, being good at heart, takes the side of the animals. Galinda, being a narcissist, goes with whatever flow will keep her on top. If this seems a bit much, recall it’s all in the original book and stage play, and the story was in need of a crisis of some sort to further define the protagonists.
The scenes in the Emerald City make up for some of the early tedium of excess.
The musical finds its footing when Galinda and Elphaba at long last decide to be friends. From that point to the end (of Part I, Part II to be delivered to theaters a year from now, assuming theaters still exist), it’s the lavish production with a purpose one had been waiting for. The scenes in the Emerald City, with an entertaining Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, and with Elphaba taking on the mantle—literally and figuratively—of Wicked Witch, make up for some of the early tedium of excess.
Erivo is magnificent as Elphaba/The Wicked Witch (we first noticed her in a small but impressive role in “Bad Times at the El Royale” [2018]). Her voice and presence are mesmerizing on screen. Grande is similarly fit for Galinda/Glinda. She plays the ditzy, over-cute, over-self-produced mean girl jerk to perfection. One even begins to feel sorry for her. The two have undeniable chemistry, which makes the show.
Credentials of the behind-the-scenes crew are impressive. Carried over from the stage play are the composer and writer Stephen Schwartz (an Oscar winner for Best Original Songs) and writer Winnie Holzman. Jon M. Chu directed “Crazy Rich Asians" (2018) and “In the Heights” (2021), another musical adapted from the stage.
In the realm of hyper-productions, “Wicked” doesn’t measure up to last year’s “Barbie” or “Poor Things.” It also lacks the biting satire and underlying complexity of those films. One longs for the play’s simpler staging as well as the book’s (a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire) darker themes, exploring the sources of good and evil. Yet the film has its charms. The soaring final number, Elphaba’s “Defying Gravity,” makes good use of all that CGI has to offer, leaving audiences exiting the theater satisfied. Maybe even ready for Part II.
She says: The 3-star second half lifted a middling film to a positive rating.
He says: The trailer was so visually cluttered, I decided to skip the film.
Date: 2024
Director: John M. Chu
Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Arianna Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Marissa Bode, Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Bowen Yang, Ethan Slater, Peter Dinklage (voice)
Country: United States
Language: English
Runtime: 200 minutes
Other Awards: 10 wins and 71 nominations to date
Comments