After traveling the seven seas and perfecting his chocolate-making craft, wide-eyed Willy Wonka (Timothee Chalamet) arrives in town where the Gourmet Gallery is located and seeks to set up roots there. When Willy was little, he got his taste of his first chocolate from his mother (Sally Hawkins) and dreamt of opening a chocolate shop someday.
Willy's mother mentioned a fancy marketplace called the Gourmet Gallery. While Willy was wistful about having such a dream, before she passed away, his mother said everything good in the world started with a dream and she asked him to hold on to his.
Cash-poor with a heart of gold and a haftul of dreams, Willy arrives in a wintry snowy night and needs a place to stay. Tricked into an indentured servitude, the aspiring chocolatier ends up working as a lodging launderer for merciless proprietor Mrs. Scrubitt (Olivia Colman) and her henchman Bleacher (Tom Davis).
As it turns out, Willy is not alone. Also trapped and living in the basement for years are former money-cruncher Abacus Crucch (Jim Carter), plumber Piper Benz (Natasha Rothwell), telephonist Lottie Bell (Rakhee Thakrar), funny man Larry Chucklesworth (Rich Fulcher), and an orphaned girl named Noodle (Calah Lane). Willy quickly makes friends with his fellow laborers and forms a special bond with Noodle. Noodle and Willy share a sweet connection about their respective personal dreams. There's more to Noodle's parentage that meets the earnest eye.
Luckily for all the unlucky laborers, Willy is not merely as an aspiring chocolatier. He's also an inventor with a mystical flair, a magician. Special levitating chocolates, for example, make people soar up and hover in the air. Willy's concoctions are often fantastical, composed with exotic ingredients or from faraway lands.
One would imagine that, with such unique concoctions, it wouldn't be hard for Willy to attract consumers and open up a chocolate shop. Well, it wouldn't have been, except for the fact that the Gourmet Gallery is monopolized by a chocolate cartel who means mean business.
The villainous merchants; Arthur Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas) and Fickelgruber (Matthew Bayntohn) will do everything in their ruthless power to squash competition and ensure that Willy would never be able to open his chocolate shop, including resorting to bribing a sweet-toothed Chief of Police (Kaegan Michael-Key) and corrupt cleric, Father Julius (Rowan Atkinson).
The chocolate cartel has a massive supply of chocolates stored underneath the Cathedral and a guarded vault. They don't shy away from attempted murders and death by chocolate method either. Seriously harmful stuff blending in with lighthearted fantasy. Their illicit dealings are recorded on an off-the-book accounting journal locked underground, which Abacus knows about.
Willy's ingenuity, complemented by his friends' trade specialties, allow them to concoct a plan to sneak out of the basement and sell or hand out chocolates to the fascinated public and escape undetected, at least for a little while. There's also a zoo escapade and mischievous heist.
Willy and friends are able to magically transform a long-abandoned, topsy-turvy space into a candy-colored chocolate shop, an enchanting forest of confectionery, at least for a brief moment. The chocolate cartel and authorities soon catch up with them.
The chocolate cartel hatches a nefarious plan to discredit Willy to the chocolate-loving consumers, sever his ties with his friends, run him out of town for good, and ban him from making chocolates ever again. They have nearly succeeded, if not because of Willy's quick thinking and apprehensive, side partnership with sardonic Oompa Loompa (Hugh Grant, "Cloud Atlas"), giving a glimpse into the backstory of the legendary master candymaker and his chocolate factory.
Amid the plot-heavy story, “Wonka” is delightful musical with a taste of magic. Rousing and modish musical numbers, skyward-soaring crowd, nighttime balloon-floating and illuminated rooftop-dancing, lamp-gliding and gently touching down the streets.
Chalamet is perfect as the young, fresh-faced and wholesome Willy who wants to share his special gift, uplift people, make them feel better about themselves, and changing the world into a happier place to live. He subtly conveys Willy's hopeful optimism, unwavering even in the face of menace, despair or defeat. He also learns the joy of friendships and sharing moments with the people he cares about, beyond crafting chocolates and realizing his sugary ambition.
If you enjoyed the fun “Paddington” (directed by the same director, Paul King), musicals “Mary Poppins Returns” and “The Greatest Showman," you're in for a whimsical adventure with “Wonka.” Pure imagination, heartwarming, joyful and magical, it's a festively delectable treat for the holidays.