Ambitiously Magical Wicked: Part One Defies Cinematic Gravity
It’s taken over two decades for the popular — “You’re gonna be pop-u-LAR!” — Broadway musical sensation Wicked to transition from stage to screen. Countless versions have been in production throughout the last 20 years, but, for whatever reason, no filmmaker has been able to rustle up the spark that could give an adaptation life. Would a new version remain a musical? Or should a feature-length production take a Harry Potter approach and hew closer to Gregory Maguire’s best-selling 1999 novel? These were only two of the plethora of questions anyone wanting to tackle the property needed to answer.
Enter director Jon M. Chu, the man behind Step Up 2: The Streets, a pair of unexpectedly successful Justin Bieber documentaries, Crazy Rich Asians, and In the Heights. Along with screenwriters Dana Fox (Cruella) and Winnie Holzman (who also wrote the book for the Broadway production), they’ve kept the picture a musical while also including material from Maguire’s source material that was excised from the stage play. The team has also cut the story into pieces, gambling that audiences will be thrilled to see a two-part epic filled with singing, dancing, and purposefully melodramatic emotions, all set in L. Frank Baum’s Merry Old Land of Oz.
The fruits of this labor of love, Wicked: Part One, has now materialized. While I’m not exactly over the rainbow, there’s plenty here worth celebrating, thanks to the pitch-perfect casting of Cynthia Erivo as the green-skinned future Wicked Witch of the West Elphaba and Ariana Grande-Butera as the selfish Galinda (who will put her past behind her to become Glinda, the Good Witch of the North) and a crackerjack climax that certainly defies gravity. I think general audiences will be clicking their ruby slippers in glee, likely making the decision to transform this story into a double feature a profitable one.
After a brief prologue in Munchkinland (which the less said about the better —it’s borderline terrible), the story kicks off with Elphaba and Galinda being forced to share the latter’s dorm suite at Shiz University. At first, the two despise one another. Later on, after a series of travails, they discover they have more in common than they thought. When Elphaba is invited by the wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) to visit him in the Emerald City, she in turn asks Galinda (now renamed Glinda to show solidarity with their history professor Dr. Dillamond, recently dismissed for being a goat) to accompany her on the trip.
That’s precious little plot for a 160-minute motion picture (and it’s only act one of the considerably shorter Broadway production). Even if Fox and Holzman go out of their way to flesh things out, make the world of Oz more complex, and add further layers to the core supporting characters — including Elphaba’s paraplegic sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), Shiz headmistress Madama Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), and dashing royal bad boy Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) — the film noticeably drags, especially throughout the midsection. Chu has considerable trouble maintaining dramatic momentum, and it isn’t until Galinda decides to give Elphaba a makeover and sings her signature song “Popular” that it begins to pick up steam.
From that point forward, Wicked: Part One takes off. The plot against the animals of Oz is revealed, and a blossoming love triangle involving Elphaba, Galinda/Glinda, and Fiyero is deftly hinted at with winking subtlety. There’s a sublime musical set piece inside the walls of the Emerald City (which had my promo audience gasping and applauding in justified shocked euphoria), and Goldblum’s initial appearance as the tongue-tied Wizard of Oz is just what one would hope for and more.
Then comes that climax. This may be only the midpoint of the overall tale, but Chu gives it all the energy, excitement, wonder, whimsy, and exclamatory, defiant joy a song like “Defying Gravity” deserves. Magnificently shot by cinematographer Alice Brooks (tick, tick…BOOM!) and cut with rapid-fire ferocity by editor Myron Kerstein (Going in Style), everything about this crackerjack finale overwhelms the senses and enlivens the soul. It builds to an explosive last few minutes that sent my heart soaring, and I nearly forgot about the elements that annoyed and frustrated me.
Still, Chu vexes me as a filmmaker. There are moments, like the one I just described, where his handling of the material is stratospheric in its attention to detail and stylishly inventive exuberance. But then there are others, much like In the Heights, when he overcuts the action and dancing to the point they become a visual blur and the athletic artistry of the ensemble is completely lost. Production designer Nathan Crowley (Tenet) creates one-of-a-kind sets overflowing in possibility — only for the director to make precious little of merit out of so many of them. It’s exasperating.
The single element that keeps this Ozian odyssey from derailing is the exemplary, free-spirited performances delivered by Erivo and Grande-Butera. With an Academy Award nomination for Harriet under her belt (and more than deserving of another one for Widows), Erivo is incredible as Elphaba, which is no surprise. She is more than up to the challenge. The actor brings a multifaceted agency to the character that leaps off the screen, and I can’t wait to see what she does in Wicked: Part Two.
But Grande-Butera? Even if the pop star got her start in teen/tween television showcases like Victorious and acquitted herself nicely in the NBC broadcast of Hairspray Live! as Penny Pingleton back in 2016, I still can’t say I foresaw this level of mesmeric emotional and physical dexterity coming from her. Grande-Butera has to walk a difficult tightrope, and she needs to do it with a cocksure grace that also hints at nakedly raw vulnerabilities Galinda/Glinda desperately wants to keep hidden. It’s a phenomenal performance, and don’t be surprised if it wins her an Oscar. I know I won’t be.
I could nitpick several additional elements. This includes the uneasy alliance between, on the one hand, the spectacular sets, costumes, and practical makeup designs and on the other, the computer-generated visual effects, which unhappily vacillate between being stunningly photorealistic and garishly unfinished (and even a little mushy) from one scene to the next. But, mostly thanks to Erivo and Grande-Butera, and courtesy of an assist from that major wow of a climax, I’m not going to let those bother me.
And as much as I wish the filmmaking team had refrained from splitting the story into pieces and delivered one three-hour musical adventure, Wicked: Part One won me over. There is magic here — elements that defy conventional cinematic gravity — and I’m not about to let my reservations bring me down.
– Review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle
Film Rating: 3 (out of 4)
