!POP! KORN

MOVIE

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

I was beginning to wonder if I was meant to see this movie as my first attempt coincided with a rainy Father's Day and untold numbers of families deciding that the ultimate bonding experience would be a movie, and specifically the one I wanted to see, and my second, on the following weekend, synching beautifully with a massive street fair in Cronulla which meant that I couldn't find a parking spot to save myself. Success at last, and by this stage I was loudly proclaiming to my film buddy, Ellen, that the film had better be as good as everyone was saying, at Westfield Miranda which not only had it on at a good time, but had parking spaces (mercy me!) and tickets available. All snug in our seats and surrounded by more teens & pre-teens that a single person in their late 30s should ever be exposed to in a concentrated period, we beamed the sweet smile of victory as the pre-show ads and trailers (for a super exciting mix of G rated fare that I won't be seeing, thank you, lovely though the trailers are) started flickering onto the screen.....alas, with NO sound! Yes there was much gnashing of teeth, and a frantic rummaging of my mind as I'd tried to remember if I had ever offended Tim Burton (the director) at any point, and if so ( a little hard since I had never met him but ya never know), was he isn't some occultic religion that cursed me to never see any of his movies? (A very ego centric occultic religion if I may say so.) But then the sweet decibels of overhyped trailers and pointless ads kicked in and stayed on for the entire movie! Success at last!

So was it as good as the critics, all of whom praised it as a witty, colourful and faithful re-imagining of the dark tale by Roald Dahl, said it was? Thankfully, yes. Visually it was stunning, full of more rich colours inside the factory than I could process, and appropriate winter-like bleakness outside it, which made the scenes inside Willy Wonka's chocolate-driven flight from reality all the more richer. Freddy Highmore, who played Charlie, had the right mix of goodness & sweetness (without miraculously becoming nausea inducing), and Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka was a delightful mix of loopy, dark, engaging and sad, and an absolute standout in the movie. Tim Burton was in fine form, staying faithful to the book, which no doubt suited him just fine since he and Roald Dahl share the same delightfully twisted view of the world. Even the brief musical numbers, performed by the mysterious Oompa Loompas to send off the four children who's various human foibles and glaring flaws doom their chance to win the factory as an inheritance, were fun, kitsch, and oh, did I mention, brief. Having disliked people spontaneously breaking into song in any movie since I was a child, this was an EGT (Exceedingly Good Thing)! There is very little to dislike in a movie that manages to wrap surreal characters, unusual circumstances and a happy non-corny ending - the less corn the better I say - into one wonderfully coloured, vibrant fun movie.

Strangely enough, I was left with a strong desire to eat not chocolate, which is what you'd expect after a movie set in a chocolate factory but for a chicken roast dinner, which Charlie's family ate in the last scene of the movie......so of course I went home, and ate a cajun flavoured kangaroo steak.....very, very close to a chicken roast dinner....OK no it isn't.....