Wonka

After seeing Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, my viewing companion and I drove to the nearest grocery story and bought chocolate bars.

Paul King’s well-made Wonka instills no such reminder of the simple pleasures of candy, but may send moviegoers out of theaters humming one of the film’s many gleeful tunes and maybe even dancing something resembling a jig.

That the aims of each Roald Dahl-inspired work differ isn’t a bad thing, and this origin story of how Willy Wonka (a spirited Timothée Chalamet) got his start in chocolates has plenty of wonderfully weird moments — particularly whenever Hugh Grant’s Oompa-Loompa is involved. But the young man’s adventures of launching his business while paying off an unfair debt to Mrs. Scrubitt (Olivia Colman, a fine villain indeed) lacks some much-needed heart and purpose.

Though a marked step back from King’s marvelous Paddington movies, enough whimsy and imagination is present to sustain one’s attention. Yet it’s also telling that when a song from the 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory makes an appearance a the film’s close, the tribute outshines everything in the preceding two hours.

Grade: B. Rated PG. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Asheville Pizza & Brewing Co., Carolina Cinemark, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Warner Bros.)