Jack’s review published on Letterboxd:
“The best way to bring folks together is to give ‘em a real good enemy.”
I am not a fan of musicals, theatre or theatrical. I can probably count on one hand with fingers to spare the amount of movie musicals I really like, and I say this just to reiterate how low my expectations for Wicked were going into it. I have never seen the iconic theatre show and I knew nothing about it, other than the songs “Defying Gravity” and “Popular”, I didn’t care for any of the promotional material or the inescapable advertising for the film, and I’ve found Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s antics on the press tour to be insufferable.
Despite all of this… I actually very much enjoyed Wicked. This is definitely an addition to the sparse amount of movie musicals that I really like, even if it does have unignorable issues.
Starting with the positives, the leading performances from Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are absolutely perfect. Erivo and Grande’s vocal abilities were never in doubt, but I was concerned at the acting ability of Grande in particular, and all I can say is that both actresses absolutely killed it in Wicked. The roles of Elphaba and Glinda are roles both actresses were simply born to play. Erivo is the emotional lynchpin of Wicked as Elphaba, the headstrong scapegoat of the powers that be within Oz who embraces her differences whilst also feeling deeply insecure about them. Grande was a huge pleasant surprise for me as Glinda - Grande is channeling Sharpay Evans from the High School Musical films, but also is allowed to go deeper and craft a character who is compliant with the injustice and propaganda of Oz, whilst also being capable of genuine kindness and friendship towards the mistreated Elphaba. Grande is also just extremely funny as Glinda, and she got so many laughs in my packed screening this afternoon. Wicked wouldn’t have worked without the Elphaba/Glinda friendship as the cornerstone of the film, and thankfully Erivo/Grande’s real life companionship translates totally on the screen.
Elsewhere, Jonathan Bailey is an absolute hoot as Fiyero (and he also oozes charisma and jaw dropping beauty in every scene - that’s a man if ever I’ve seen one!). Sure, Fiyero is a less villainous Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, but Bailey is a shot of energy into the arm of Wicked every time he is on screen, and I had fun with his character. Speaking of actors being born to play a role, Jeff Goldblum as The Wizard was something I never knew I needed until now - he killed it. Finally, Michelle Yeoh is stellar as Madame Morrible, and as a newcomer to this version of the Oz story, I was taken aback by the twists her character goes through in Wicked.
A key component to whether or not movie musicals work for me (and I assume for the majority of people) is the songs - for the most part, the songs in Wicked are great, which shouldn’t be a surprise given how enduring this story has been on Broadway for over two decades. I wasn’t familiar with any of John M. Chu’s work before this, but I have to give him enormous credit for his grasp on the craft of movie musicals - all of the musical numbers, even ones for songs I didn’t care for, are choreographed, shot and staged down to a T, and his passion for this story is evident throughout. Elsewhere, I enjoyed how Chu opined on the danger of propaganda, the othering of those different to the norm, and the simple fact that a manufactured societal enemy is a convenient scapegoat used to distract from the real societal issues of the day. It was very, very relevant to today’s cultural context, and it may well have been from the source text, but alas.
For as much as I liked Wicked, there were some glaring issues which I feel are being slightly lost in the hysterical praise it has been receiving this week. At 161 minutes for a Part 1 (?!), Wicked is simply a bit too long. It starts excellently and ends strong, but around 3/4 in it did start to feel noticeably baggy, and at around this time the many kids in my screening today started to get restless too. Also, whilst not an issue with Wicked per se, I do have to confess to being negatively distracted by Ethan Slater’s Boq, solely due to his real life relationship (and alleged affair - ???) with Ariana Grande; it took me out of the film every single time. Finally but most importantly, Wicked is often frustratingly drab from a visual standpoint. The Wizard of Oz famously employed Technicolor which allowed for such beautifully colourful, rich imagery. I am well aware that this technology is no longer in use, but surely Chu could have done better than what we see in Wicked? Everything is there on screen, but it always looks so visually muted and digitised - it’s a huge shame.
Overall though, I’m as surprised as anyone as to how much I enjoyed Wicked. I was a naysayer on it’s Academy Awards hype, and I still am not sure whether it’ll win any major categories (other than Best Costume Design), but I now don’t think that an Erivo, Grande or even Best Picture nomination is out of the question. I can see my rating for Wicked going up upon a rewatch as I did really enjoy it, but I can also see my issues being more pronounced on the small screen - we shall see!
Also… why do characters speak so strangely? Words like “horrendible”, “scandalotious” and “punctification” are used constantly in Wicked… I didn’t get it at all.
