why oh why?

Rating: 1/10 (14 July 2005)

Rarely have I been as depressed coming out of a movie theater as I was last night after seeing Charlie. I have been a Roald Dahl fan my whole life, and Charlie has always been one of my favorite books. That being said, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have officially been added to my hit list for completely butchering one of the greatest stories ever written.
While Charlie is played exactly by Freddie Highland, Burton rushes through his pre-Golden Ticket story, and as the movie goes on, he seems to forget his presence as a character. In the book, Charlie walks by the factory everyday, longing to get inside and see what's in store. In this movie....nothing. Charlie's magnanimous notion to sell his ticket to make money for his family would have been wonderful, but Burton failed to establish a precedent for it. So sad.
Burton hopes to create a darker, crazier version of Wonka through Johnny Depp, who happens to be one of my favorite actors. What he created, however, was a Wonka who behaves like an infant throughout the entire movie. Depp tries too hard, and comes off as a character with absolutely no depth and no credibility. He has no soul. After meeting Wonka for the first time, I was hoping that at some point, Depp would drop the superficial act and be the dynamic, crazy, enigmatic man who is Willy Wonka. As it is, Depp fails even to show pride for his life's work. He succeeds only at creating forced awkwardness that ruins the allure and character of Wonka. He fails to establish any ownership over his own factory which literally ruins the movie.
As for the dialogue, it felt like it was written by a 3rd grader. Wonka speaks in failed, broken colloquialisms throughout the film. It feels entirely forced, and the dialogue does not allow for the characters to grow.
What was most disappointing about the movie were the moments that gave me hope for how much better it could have been. In the last scene, Wonka and Charlie share a mutual glimmer that had not been seen throughout the entire film. If Burton intended to give Womka a depraved side, he actually came out as an awkward elementary schooler, who seems totally indifferent to absolutely everything around him. The pinnacle of this disaster, is the contrast of Wilder and Depp in reaction to Augustus swimming in the chocolate. While Wilder nearly suffers an emotional breakdown at the sight of fat German hands contaminating his life's work, Depp barely flinches. The lack of heart and soul made this film totally unenjoyable. If there is a positive, it is that I am now driven to read the book and watch the old movie as quickly as possible to restore my love for this fantastic story.