I probably shouldn’t be surprised that Wicked would be as popular as it turned out to be. An adaptation of an enormously popular Broadway musical, based itself on a novel based on one of the most popular children’s stories of all time, and with Ariana Grande-Butera as one of the leads, it’s probably the most obvious box office success story of the year. Normally, it might not even be something that’s on the top of my own list since I read Gregory Maguire’s book once years ago and don’t remember that much about it aside from two admittedly awesome find lines. But I will say I know Cynthia Erivo can sing, and my girlfriend wanted to see this one more than most of the other stuff she wanted to see. There was no way I wasn’t going to see it.
Now, why it got the Part One/Part Two treatment, I have no idea.
The movie opens with news that the Wicked Witch of the West has been killed by a small child armed with a bucket of water. As reported by Glinda (Grande-Butera) to the celebrating Munchkins, Glinda finds herself at a loss for words when she’s suddenly asked if she and the Witch (Erivo) were once friends. Glinda says they were, but then flashbacks reveal the rest as the Witch, originally known as Elphaba Tropp, was born the green-skinned daughter of the Governor of Munchkinland. She and her father escort her wheelchair-bound sister Nessarose (Marrissa Bode) to Shiz University where she is to begin her lessons. Elphaba has been a pariah, loved only by her talking bear nanny, since she was a baby, but a sudden display of magic catches the eye of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), Dean of Sorcery, and Elphaba finds herself a student as well, one who somehow ends up as a roommate to Galinda (later Glinda), a flighty, young, rich woman used to getting her way.
Suffice to say, the perennially popular Galinda and the studious Elphaba don’t get along right away, particularly since Galinda wanted to study magic with Morrible and Elphaba got the professor’s only slot. For her own part, Elphaba finds herself attracted to helping the talking animals of Oz, a repressed minority for some reason, and maybe she can get that if she ever gets to the Emerald City to see the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum), a man renowned for his power and benevolent leadership. She has the potential, and she and Galinda may even find a way to be friends if the love of one Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) doesn’t somehow come between the two. What will happen is a Wicked Witch will rise if she has to, and there are secrets in the land of Oz that very well may force that issue.
I’ve generally been of the opinion that the one way for me to really enjoy a musical is I have to see it in a theater. Otherwise, I may get too distracted during the songs to pay sufficient attention. But something like Wicked here seems like the sort of thing that would be hard to ignore. Grande’s pop singing style isn’t really for me, but Erivo’s voice is always welcome to my ears, and director Jon M. Chu went way overboard with just about everything here. The sets, the camera angles, the cameos, just about everything possible is cranked up to 11 here.
And honestly, this is Wicked. It somewhat has to be cranked up to 11. Doing anything like this one in a half-assed way just wouldn’t work, and there’s a lot to love about this movie. Casting Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard may seem like a no-brainer on some level, but Yeoh makes for a very formidable Morrible, and there’s even Peter Dinklage’s voicing a talking goat, but really, this is Grande and Erivo’s movie, and both of them deliver. Truthfully, the highest compliment I can deliver for this one is a simple one: I sat there for nearly three hours and barely noticed the time passing, and I probably wouldn’t have minded if they just continued the story. The last time I felt like that was for The Fellowship of the Ring. I’ll just figure this one ends on what will instead be a very long intermission.
Grade: A
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