Wicked movie review: “If we walk far enough,” so said Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, “we shall sometime come to someplace.”
But sometimes, one should just take a break. By the end of Wicked’s 2 hours and 40 minute length, with a second part to come next year, one can be pardoned for feeling that way as the oversung, overwrought, over-frenzied musical around the land of Oz tests every bit of one’s patience.
Not to mention tests having too many balls in the air.
Once upon a time, in a land that is not far from Oz, a green-hued baby is born to a woman who has been cheating on her husband, the area’s Governor. The latter, not suspecting her wife of anything but a diet rich on greens, banishes the baby that is named Elphaba (played by Cynthia Eviro as an adult) to be raised by nannies. The nannies are kind, the other kids not so; the mumma dies, the dad remains unkind and, moreover, partial to the second daughter (Marissa Bode), born with a disability.
And hence it is that Elphaba grows up lonely, bitter and combative, her unique powers of conjuring up magic when angry or disturbed going unnoticed.
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Fate lands Elphaba in the University of Shiz, where sorcery is taught among other subjects, and where she finds herself sharing a room with Galinda a.k.a Glinda (Grande). Where Elphaba is an outcast, Galinda is Ms Popular and pretty in pink, whose special talent is flouncing her blond hair just so (it’s funny the first few times), and catching the breeze in it at just the right time. Also in the mix is a self-confessedly shallow, self-absorbed Prince, Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who can’t decide whom he likes more between Elphaba and Glinda (though, of course, we know where that is going).
And then there is Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), the professor of sorcery who takes Elphaba quickly under her wing, leaving Glinda distressed. In other worlds, Glinda would be green with jealousy, but green is a colour reserved for Elphaba in this film, plus Grande’s character is written in such a way that we are never really sure of what she is about.
Is she genuinely good, or just pretending to be once she and Elphaba grow close? Is she only concerned about being “the best” herself, or is there genuine concern about Elphaba in her heart? And what is happening in that song where Glinda joins Elphaba on the dance floor as the latter is being mocked by the other students? It is one of the film’s most genuine moments and what looks like the start of a beautiful friendship. Only, the very next moment, Glinda takes up the “project” to mould Elphaba in her image of beauty.
Lest you think that this is what Wicked is about, be corrected. Because there is a subplot about “changes coming in Oz”, the primary one being animals “losing their ability to talk” or being silenced if they push back. The one pushing the hardest is another Professor at the University, Dillamond (voiced by Dinklage), and Elphaba springs to his side in defence.
So yeah, there is a lot of very obvious messaging here, about discrimination, about how we treat people who are different from us, about “giving the public an enemy” to keep them from thinking about more pressing things, about girls being friends (and, at least for a while, setting the boy aside) and, yes, about being Black. After she has got over her initial shock at the green look of Elphaba, Glina quickly asserts: “Of course, it is a perfectly acceptable colour.”
When the two become “friends”, we find ourselves in a forest full of foliage with green and pink; the same combination later recurs inside vases at the Wizard’s place.
The film’s easy cliches are just one part. Perhaps the most egregious are the number of songs crammed into it. While the film is adapted from a Broadway musical now running for more than 20 years, most of the songs are ear aches – and by the end, a headache.
To give Erivo her due, and to a lesser extent Grande, the two are the better parts of Wicked. It is tempting to think what a film centred on just the two of them would do, as the greens and pinks mixed to create unexpected hues.
Wicked movie director: Jon M Chu
Wicked movie cast: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Marissa Bode, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Dinklage (voice)
Wicked movie rating: 2 stars
