Charlie And The Chocolate Factory **1/2

Rating: 5/10 (23 February 2006)

As if the mere fact that even today's major Hollywood film-makers - Tim Burton, The Coen Brothers, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone - have resorted to remaking earlier successes was not alarming enough, here we also have a remake which, despite being helmed by a vastly more talented director than the original's anonymous Mel Stuart, proves to be much less appetizing (pun intended). The thing is that, while the remake has all the visual flourishes and outrageous production design synonymous with its idiosyncratic director, it is fatally compromised by the distinctly unsympathetic characterization given by Johnny Depp (ironically, my favorite actor working in films today) in the all-important role of the reclusive Willy Wonka. While I haven't read the Roald Dahl book myself, so I can't really say with any measure of accuracy which of the two characterizations - Gene Wilder's in the 1971 original or Depp's in the remake - is the closer to Dahl's conception of Wonka, it goes without saying that Wilder's is the winner here. All in all, in fact, although I didn't enjoy that film on second viewing as much as I did the first, I prefer Wilder's version in practically every department. Also, while I did get used to the bizarrely "modern" musical numbers as the film progressed, I don't think they were really suited to the material. The appearance of Christopher Lee as Depp¡¦s dentist father was a welcome addition, though, and in a way his scenes helped make some of Wonka's eccentricities more palatable. In conclusion, while Burton's remake of WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY wasn't as disastrous as his 2001 version of PLANET OF THE APES, which was decidedly his nadir, here's hoping that he gets back to concocting his own original visions before long.