Welcome to another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com! We have another current nominee for ya!
Today it's the smash-hit from last Thanksgiving season, the much-anticipated film version of the smash-hit Broadway show Wicked! Or Wicked: Part 1, more accurately. Yes, the FIRST ACT of the two-and-a-half-hour stage show was stretched out to 160 minutes for the screen. Jesus, Hollywood, do ya not believe in editing rooms anymore??
Anyway, this Wizard of Oz prequel was directed by John M. Chu of Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights fame, and stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as the two main characters, Elphaba Thropp (or The Wicked Witch of the West as she would later be known) and Glinda the Good Witch of the North. But of course this film takes place before either of them earned their famous monikers, when they were just students at Shiz University ("This school is the shiz!"). Galinda Upland as she was known then was a well-to-do, popular, entitled young woman, while Elphaba was an outcast of modest means, gifted in magic but isolated from her peers due to her green skin (one of two very on-the-nose metaphors in this film). One of the school's prominent professors (Michelle Yeoh) takes an interest in Elphaba and thinks she shows enough promise to meet the celebrated Wizard (Jeff Goldbum, playing Jeff Goldblum). This sparks jealousy from Galinda, who has been assigned against her will as Elphaba's roommate. The two have an Odd Couple-esque relationship before finally becoming friends, and Galinda comes to support Elphaba's visit to the Emerald City. But all is not what it seems....
Chu has delivered a crowd-pleasing spectacle of a film musical, with lavish production numbers and visually stunning sets, costumes and CG. The two leads really carry the film. Erivo gives a sympathetic, internalized performance conveying Elphaba's masked hurt at constantly being seen as inferior to her non-green classmates. Grande more or less steals the show, flexing her comedic muscles as Galinda tries to be glamorous and full of gravitas, but really isn't very good at it. Their chemistry supplies the film's heart and keeps us invested even as the running time taxes our patience. The script spends a very long time world-building and it isn't until the pair make their way to the Emerald City and the Wizard's true intentions become known that the drama really picks up, but that's two-thirds of the way through. I've never seen the stage play but I imagine the first act isn't more than 90 minutes; I see no reason this film couldn't have been trimmed to roughly two hours.
Anyway, there's enough compelling material here to interest me in seeing the second film, most of it centering around the citizenry of Oz painting Elphaba as a villain when she hasn't earned that reputation, while Glinda resigns herself to the role of her opposite number. I'm curious how the story shores up their two arcs (and that of the Wizard) with how they're portrayed in the original Wizard of Oz. Does Elphaba truly become evil or is her portrayal in the original film simply a perception issue? We'll see.
Wicked is a fairly enjoyable romp that would've benefited greatly from more disciplined editing and pacing, but Erivo and Grande keep things fun to watch and their singing is of course fantastic. I hope the second act moves along faster.
On balance I'll give Wicked *** out of ****.
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