The Problem With Chalamet’s Wonka: Candy Capitalism

The trailer for Timothée Chalamet's new movie Wonka came out recently and the reactions were… mixed, to say the least. While some are still excited, many complained that Chalamet wasn’t right for the role, and even I have to say that while I generally like Chalamet, his performance in the trailer left me with a certain level of discomfort and disillusionment. At the same time, though, to say that the main issue with the Wonka trailer is Chalamet’s performance seems a bit of a stretch. Perhaps there was somebody better for the role, given that he got the part without even auditioning, but his acting actually isn't terrible. He's a decent actor, it's just that he's having to deal film's real problem: bad writing.

The movie hasn’t come out yet, so it’s impossible to know exactly what will happen in the film, but the audience was right to call out the awkward whimsy of it all. They were just wrong in blaming Chalamet. His performance seems to fit what he’s saying, the problem is that what he’s saying doesn’t fit who Wonka is supposed to be. Willie Wonka, for all his zaniness and inventive spirit, is not some cute little inventor. He's not one of the good guys. Just consider poor Charlie’s family in the original book: only his father has a job, and even then, it's a tedious, menial, low-paying one where he spends his days screwing on toothpaste caps. The family is destitute; they don’t starve, but it seems that the only thing saving them from that fate is that it would be a bit too dark for a children’s book. As for Charlie, he dreams of chocolate, obsesses over it even, but only gets a small candy bar once a year on his birthday.

How is this possible, when they live so near to what is apparently the largest chocolate factory in the world? Simple: capitalist greed. It turns out that Wonka used to have thousands of workers, presumably serving as the economic heart of the community, only to shut down completely one day and lay off everyone due to spies stealing his creations. An economy destroyed overnight, just to preserve intellectual property. Wonka is not a whimsical innovator - if he were, he would simply continue creating new fantastical chocolates, not caring if his recipes were stolen. No, he’s a stone-cold businessman, ready to leave thousands unemployed and hungry for the sake of preserving his profit.

That isn’t to mention the cruel punishments he doles out to naughty children who have been raised poorly through no fault of their own, or the fact that he doesn’t provide employment to the locals even when he reopens the factory, or even the most damning of all, the fact that in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas that replaced the workers were actually pygmy slaves from Africa, an unsurprisingly uncritical detail from the notoriously racist Roald Dahl. As far as Wonka is concerned, it's better if you just forget all of that. After all, how could a charming old man like Hugh Grant play an enslaved black person? It's simply preposterous, so it's best to not even think of it.

Willie Wonka is a character designed to be a satire of capitalists, a fictional Elon Musk who can be manipulated and played with to expose the flaws in our system. If the creators of Wonka wanted to make a modern prequel about the character, that would actually resonate with modern audiences, it wouldn’t be difficult. All it would take to work is showing how a young man with the perfect mix of dream, passion, and talent abandons his desire to invent as his lust for money grows ever irresistible. It’s a story that anyone can relate to, as we all lose certain parts of ourselves to the world we live in as we grow up, whether it be to support a growing family, to match society’s image of success, or simply just to keep a roof over one’s head and survive. Morals slip, then they slide, and before you know it, you don’t recognise yourself anymore.

Unfortunately, I doubt that we can look forward to that politically sharp Wonka. Based on the pure whimsy and fun in the trailer, plus the fact that the film is directed by Paul King of Paddington fame, Wonka will be a cute family movie with a digestible and socially acceptable political message at best and meaningless visuals at worst. It’s ironic that in an attempt to cash in on Willie Wonka’s fame, the film is likely to erase the titular character's same hunger for money, the only thing that would have actually made for an interesting story. Ironic, and disappointing too, but unfortunately not surprising in the least. While it’s possible that Wonka is simply running a terrible marketing campaign in order to surprise audiences in theatres, I wouldn’t hold my breath. I expect fluffy visuals propping up a vacuous story, tooth-achingly sweet candy capitalism, and nothing more - I just hope the audience doesn’t blame Chalamet more than he deserves.