Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Directed by Tim Burton

Film Review

Although Tim Burton would seem to be the obvious person to direct an adaptation of Roald Dahl's popular children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it took well over a decade before he was parachuted into the job after its producers (Warner Brothers and Brillstein-Grey Entertainment) and Dahl's estate had finally reached an agreement over the film's content and who should write, direct and star in it.  Roald Dahl was famously unhappy with the previous adaptation of his novel, Mel Stuart's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), mainly because its plot strayed too far from that of his original story, and it is interesting to speculate what he would have made of Burton's version, which is broadly faithful to the book and retains its author's mischievously dark humour, and indeed goes even further with its macabre horror.

A fan of Dahl's novel since childhood, Tim Burton gives it the distinctive Gothic feel of his other memorable fantasies, notably Edward Scissorhands (1990), with Johnny Depp once again cast as the reclusive loner - a logical interpretation of the Willy Wonka character that allows the film to offer more of an emotional journey than Stuart's more prosaic film.  One of Dahl's main objections to the 1971 film was that it placed Wonka rather than Charlie at the centre of narrative.  This is handsomely corrected in Burton's film, which makes young Charlie the moral hero who redeems Wonka, a more passive and opaque character.  Mindful not to undermine the reality of the story by crowding in too many special effects, Burton keeps the computer generated wizardry to the minimum, using more conventional trickery (such as false perspective sets) to create the desired illusion.  Those computer effects which are used are invariably impressive, particularly the multiple replication of the diminutive actor Deep Roy into an army of Ooma Loompa people.  It's a pity the quality of the effects work was not matched by the musical numbers, which are generally charmless and aggravating, the one flaw in an otherwise unblemished production.

Freddie Highmore makes an excellent Charlie, an unassuming and very likeable contrast with most of the child heroes that we see on the screen these days.  Highmore's Charlie isn't entirely perfect (his first thought when he finds a banknote in the street is to buy himself a big bar of chocolate, the greedy pig) but when he is put in a moral quandary of some importance he usually makes the right call.  In a world turned rotten by selfishness and greed, Charlie is a gleaming white bicuspid of hope, the only one who is capable of luring Wonka back out of his solitary reclusion.  Highmore's pleasingly understated portrayal of virtue makes a marvellous contrast with the ghastly self-absorption of the other children, colourfully portrayed for another four promising young actors.  David Kelly's Grandpa Joe is another endearing character, and it is to Johnny Depp's credit that he does not dominate the proceedings but instead turns in a much more subtle and enigmatic portrayal than Gene Wilder did in the earlier Wonka film.  Christopher Lee - one of Burton's biggest personal icons - shows up in a pleasing cameo, playing (of all things) a dentist.

Burton's imagination and warped sense of humour enliven Dahl's original concept and make it into a visually arresting and funny morality play that speaks to both children and adults.  Like Dahl, Burton appears to have no truck with the present politically correct mindset which insists that all children should be sanctified, and he has no problem with meting out some hideous just deserts to those odious boys and girls who deserve it.  Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde and Mike Teavee all come to a suitably sticky end, and only the virtuous Charlie avoids the psychopathic indignities dreamed up by Dahl and Burton.  Goodness is rewarded, naughtiness is punished - it's an old-fashioned notion but Burton gets the message across just as effectively as Dahl does in his book.  If you want to avoid being attacked by psychotic squirrels, blown up as a blueberry, stretched into a two-dimensional cardboard cut out and half-drowned in molten chocolate, you know what to do: just be nice.  And if you are really nice, you will end up flying about in a glass box chaotically piloted by a child-hating recluse with more psychological problems than you can ever dream of...

Film Synopsis

Charlie Bucket lives with his parents and four grandparents in a rundown old house, the family barely surviving on the small amount Charlie's father earns at the toothpaste factory.  Charlie's grandpa Joe has happy memories of the time when he used to work in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, although it has been many years since Wonka dismissed all his workers to prevent his competitors from stealing his secrets.  The world is thrown into a frenzy when Wonka announces he has placed special golden tickets in five of his chocolate bars.  The lucky children who find these tickets will each be allowed to visit his factory, and one of them will win a special prize.  Charlie would give anything to see Willy Wonka's factory, but his chance of finding one of the golden tickets is negligible.  He only has one bar of chocolate each year, on his birthday.  It is not long before four of the tickets are found, by four of the most ghastly children imaginable: the greedy glutton Augustus Gloop, the spoiled and selfish Veruca Salt, the constantly bragging Violet Beauregarde and the violent TV game addict Mike Teavee.  Charlie can hardly believe his good fortune when he opens a Wonka Bar and finds the fifth golden ticket...