Wicked | 2024
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande star in Wicked.
Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, Wicked the musical debuted on Broadway in 2003, becoming one of those rare crossover stage hits that reverberated beyond the typical audience of Broadway fans and theatre kids and into the general consciousness. Yet despite its popularity, it's taken over 20 years to bring this Broadway juggernaut to the screen.
The result is a gargantuan, two part film, whose first entry, covering just the first act of the show, runs roughly the same length as the entire Broadway musical. No other film this year has been more ubiquitous or heavily marketed, and it's on track to become a genuine phenomenon, earning rapturous praise from both critics and audiences. It's a feeling I wish I could reciprocate, because I can't help but feel that the audience, and this musical, deserve so much better than this.
Essentially a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, Wicked reimagines the Oz of our imaginations to present the origin story of one of popular cultures greatest villains - the Wicked Witch of the West, and her one time friendship with her future nemesis, Glinda the Good Witch. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), as she is known here, is an outcast prodigy at Shiz University, who despite mistrust and mistreatment due to the vertiginous pigment of her skin, becomes the star sorcery pupil; much to the chagrin of ultra-popular socialite, Galinda (Ariana Grande). Her ascent, and their friendship, is threatened when Elphaba is chosen to be apprentice to the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), a talentless humbug who needs her magic to exert control over Oz and continue his fascistic subjugation of the kingdom's population of talking animals.
The story has always been about antifascism, and the idea that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. The musical brightens some of the novel's darker political themes, but the ideas remain uncomfortably timely given our current political climate. Elphaba, choosing to oppose the Wizard, is labeled a "wicked witch," an enemy of the people, although much of the meat of that story is still to come in next year's Part 2. That's part of the issue here, Wicked is only the first part of a much larger story that was meant to be digested as a whole. The ideas of how political propaganda is used to unite a country around a common enemy are terrifyingly relevant, but the film we get feels strangely toothless.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in Wicked.
This could almost be forgiven since this is technically only half the story, but director Jon M. Chu (In the Heights) shoots the film in such a dull way that its candy-colored aesthetic gets lost. The flat, dimly lit cinematography has been the source of much debate online, and it doesn't look any better on the big screen. In his efforts to pad out this Part 1, Chu stuffs the musicals numbers to the gills, often undoing their natural dramatic arcs. The power of its music is paradoxically undercut by its attempts to broaden its scope. This is especially noticeable in the climactic "Defying Gravity" number. Once the act one showstopper, it's now the grand finale, and Chu drags it out so that the song almost feels secondary to the spectacle, constantly stopping it to focus on the action scene unfolding around it, hobbling its momentum and robbing it of its true power.
It's an issue that runs throughout Wicked, this belief that more is more while making the truly impressive practical production design look like ugly CGI monstrosities. It is very lucky, then, the the film is anchored by two incredible performances courtesy of Erivo and Grande, whose embodiment of the wounded, introverted Elphaba and the effervescently self-absorbed Galinda are the kinds of star-making performances of which most actors can only dream. While Grande was already a widely beloved popstar, her work here launches her into a new stratosphere. She and Erivo bring a welcome sense of humanity to a film that is often devoid of it, as Chu treats it like a product to be sold rather than a story to be told.
Thankfully, it doesn't feel like film that runs two hours and forty minutes, but it is nevertheless overstuffed, far away from the classic charms of The Wizard of Oz. Chu has stated in interviews that he hoped the darker visual aesthetic makes his Oz feel more real, but it actually has the opposite effect, creating a world whose lack of contrast is sterile and off-putting. This movie is going to make a gazillion dollars no matter what I say, and Erivo and Grande are more than worth the price of admission; but one can't help but feel that they, and this musical, deserve better than something that feels so unremarkable.
