Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) **

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2005)

I have often said that Johnny Depp is a fine actor - one of the best today, actually. But his eerie interpretation of Willy Wonka made me uneasy, repulsed, and - had I been a small child - I'd imagine also pretty frightened as well. As some commentators have said, this is not a movie for little kids. For an intended wondrous, child-like fantasy of this type, where an eccentric larger-than-life candy maker invites five lucky golden ticket-winning children to visit his marvelous factory for one whole day, there were far too many horrific sights and a generally dark, gloomy weirdness to these proceedings. Totally joyless, they even made 'me' feel repelled rather than delighted.
I went to the movie because I like Depp, and I'm a long-time fan of Christopher Lee (who plays Wonka's dentist daddy in flashback sequences). I also have a cheerful wife whose favorite childhood film of all time was the old Gene Wilder version of WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and, to tell you the truth - she's like a little kid herself whenever she thinks of this story. So I wanted to go to this new Tim Burton movie partly because I knew I'd be tickled to see her so happy, as I anticipated she might be - and for what it's worth, she did come out liking this film as much as the older one, sure enough. At least THAT was some kind of solace for me.
Right after seeing Burton's take on Charlie, I dug out my wife's copy of the 1971 Gene Wilder film. I watched it and have come to the conclusion that this new version is obviously done on more of a grand scale, and there were elements of it that worked better than before; but at the same time, the original had more charm and less grimness. Some of the changes I liked better would be: I think the boy playing Charlie is more sincere and pitiable in this 2005 edition, but the neighborhood that Burton has him living in looks like something out of Gotham City from his own BATMAN ('89). I know Charlie and his family are supposed to be impoverished, but their crooked little shack that looks like it's ready to collapse any second is taking it a bit too far. I also liked the new addition of the "competitive" girl and her striving mom who seem to have their eye on the "prize" as some sort of fierce competition instead of just trying to have a good old fun time.
I liked most of the songs heard in the 1971 version better than the musical numbers in this one, and while the old feature could be pretty mean at times in its own right, it's child's play next to Burton's horrors, and Wilder still made for a more acceptable choice as the unusual candy showman than Depp does. If I were a child, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near Johnny's Willy. For those insisting that Burton's film is true to the Roald Dahl book, I haven't read it, so I don't know. But word on the street from those who have read it say that CHARLIE is not 100% faithful either. But get this -- while watching the 1971 movie, however, I was surprised to learn that the screenplay was written by Mr. Dahl himself -- so, whether completely in tune with the novel or not, I'm taking the Gene Wilder film to be straight from the original author's mouth (and pen). It had his seal of approval. ** out of ****