Friday 19 August 2005

Charlie Charlie

Went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night. With Tim Burton involved one expected it to be a bit crazy, but I have to say that it is very weird. The film could quite legitimately have a subtitle: A Study in the Grotesque. I can understand Johnny Depp's problem, trying to make a classic character all his own, but there were some very, well...unsettling moments in his Willy Wonka. And then all of those references to eating and over-eating have resonances now, with fat children dying of bloody heart attacks, that they did not have when Dahl wrote the book nor when the original film was made.

Mo Mowlam died last night. Very sad. Two terrible recent losses for the Labour party.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Didn't like Depp channeling Michael Jackson for Willy Wonka, and I especially didn't like the whole pyschoanalysing of Wonka's childhood!

Loved those squirrels though!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Darragh on both counts, especially on the squirrel ones. Somewhat a matter of fair accident, but I saw the Ice Age 2 teaser right before Charlie, and the animated squirrel was really close to the (real?) ones in the movie... or at least so it seemed to me. Did Ice Age set the trend in movie squirrels? :)

Miglior acque said...

Yes I must say that the squirrels were quite wonderful, and especially Willy Wonka's warning to the little girl who goes up to them: "Don't touch their nuts, it drives them crazy!"

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...