‘Wicked: Part One’ review – by Sonny Bunch

EVIL: PART 1 IS SOMETHING LIKE A MUSICAL ORIGIN STORY FROM THE EARLY ERA OF THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: The characters are broad and the backgrounds are computer generated and the conflicts are thin and it all serves mainly to demonstrate how the hero gets her powers to let us see her unleash them in the future, better rates of the franchise.

The story, as I’m sure you know, is a revisionist retelling of it The The Wizard of Oz. The so-called “Wicked Witch of the West” was a scapegoat, chosen to serve as an image for the people to gather around while she burned. Glinda was a pawn of the Wizard; Dorothy an ignorant dupe. Evil tells the “real” story, one of oppression and discrimination of the green-skinned witch.

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is her name; she is the illegitimate daughter of the mayor of Munchkinland, whose mother was seduced by a man whose face we never see but whose voice sounds suspiciously like Jeff Goldblum, who plays the wizard. As a result of the task – which was completed while her mother drank a mysterious green liquid – Elphaba is born with a pronounced green color and unexpected magical powers that reveal themselves when she is upset.

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Her childhood is unhappy; she grew up unloved and unwanted, raised by a talking bear nanny. It is only by chance that Elphaba is admitted to Shiz University with her crippled sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), when her latent magical powers manifest in front of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). Unexpectedly and therefore without a home, Elphaba is paired with Glinda (Ariana Grande) in her private suite, where the two opposites – Glinda is blonde and popular and does nothing to risk standing; Elphaba brunette and despised and always trying to study – become fast enemies.

The heart of the story is their loathing-turned-friendship, and the best musical number in the film, at least in terms of cinematic presentation, is “What Is This Feeling?” It’s all shot like a music video, cutting together between different locations to create the mirrored sense of the roommates growing to hate each other, but also binding them together in mood and movement. They are not so different, these two; they both care deeply about how others see them, although Glinda is more transparent about it.

The most moving moment in the film comes a little later, at an illegal underwater club. Glinda extends her grace to Elphaba, and she is accepted by the rest of the students as worthy of their friendship and admiration; again, their story is told through dance, though this time it’s all set in the same location, with the camera rotating between the two of them and the students, director Jon M. Chu getting close, showing us Glinda’s emotional growth and Elphaba’s crumbling stoicism.

I didn’t care much Wicked: First part– I’m desperately tired of movies being half of one movie, especially when the movie has a running time of 160 minutes – but Ariana Grande delivers one of the best performances of the year as Glinda. Yeah, that’s pretty much one remark that tone is “dizzy blonde consumed by self-absorption.” But she hits that note like she’s Whitney Houston at the Super Bowl: Grande is fiercely funny and charming inside it, and Glinda’s moments of growth—like when she looks behind Elphaba’s rock-like facade and acknowledges the girl’s suffering—are both genuine and heartfelt. There is conflict at the heart of this ditz, and she conveys it clearly with her eyes.

I’ve seen people suggest that this movie is a satisfying whole rather than an unsatisfying half of a whole that is nonetheless the same running time as the Broadway musical. This is confusing, as pretty much every subplot – including the ham-handed metaphor of animal oppression that implicitly compares talking goats to Jews in Nazi Germany and the desperately boring relationship between Nessarose and a Munchkin with a crush on Glinda – is completely unresolved.

Fortunately, all my questions will be answered: regardless of my exhaustion, the film is likely to be a monstrous hit with audiences and Oscar voters alike. The audience I saw it with seemed delighted; it laughed and sniffed at all the right moments. It’s not for me, but you want to know if it’s for you. Please don’t let my spiteful nature put you off, despite the seriousness of my disapproval.

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