drooling and drooling more

Rating: 10/10 (10 August 2005)

Johnny Depp may be the most interesting actor of his generation, and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" reaffirms that. The story of course has destitute Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) winning a trip to confectioner Willy Wonka's (Johnny Depp) factory. Probably the neatest aspect is how they've reworked Willy Wonka. Due to an overbearing, anti-candy dentist father (Christopher Lee), Willy has resulted a socially awkward wacko who looks like Jim Morrison and Tina Louise had an illegitimate son and occasionally utters aphorisms that may or may not appeal to everyone.
As for the other characters, the Oompa Loompas (Deep Roy) just love to sing about spoiled children getting their comeuppances, and Charlie's grandfather Joe (David Kelly) makes an interesting counterbalance to the young cast. My favorite scene? Gee, that's a tough one. I guess that any one of the other children getting their comeuppances made for something cool: the perpetually obese Augustus Gloop gets sucked into a pipe, the overachieving Violet Beauregarde turns into a blueberry, the spoiled-beyond-repair Veruca Salt gets thrown down a garbage chute by a bunch of squirrels, and the video game-obsessed Mike Teavee gets transferred into a TV.
Anyway, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is one movie that's bound to please everyone. Tim Burton really knows how to handle this sort of material.