It is wonderful to see the witches of Oz dancing and singing their way through Shiz University in Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical Wicked, even if at two hours and 40 minutes his film — which is just the first part of two – is as long as the whole Broadway musical.
The movie grabs your attention from get go with the people of Oz celebrating the melting of the Wicked Witch of the West. It soon throws you into the past as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North — played by Ariana Grande — recounts the story of her enmity and friendship with the green-skinned witch with the crooked hat and the flying broom.
Based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the film covers the first act of the Broadway musical, starting with the birth of a green-skinned baby with extraordinary powers. Bullied all her life for her skin colour, Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) leads a lonely and troubled existence till she accompanies her sister Nessarose to Shiz University and is discovered by the intimidating professor, Madam Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), and admitted to the university.
The movie mostly is about the enemy to friends story of Elphaba and Glinda, then known as Galinda, who is popular but self absorbed and shallow, with a Mean Girl-like clique but a penchant for being ‘good’. Their personalities clash is depicted not just through the powerhouse performances of Erivo and Grande but also in their colours — black and green for Elphaba and frothy pink for Galinda. The colours start complimenting each other as each starts learning from the other. While Elphaba helps Galinda find real goodness, Galinda helps Elphaba find confidence and courage.
Wicked is visually stunning with the magical Oz coming to life in all its colourful glory and grandeur. The singing and dancing will keep your feet tapping though it does get overwhelming at times, especially as the story meanders a bit with a subplot about oppression of the speaking animals. What makes you forget all that are the two main leads. Erivo as Elphaba is absolutely wonderful, emoting through her eyes and voice the loneliness, anger, yearning, joy and disappointment. She sets Grande a difficult task but the singer-songwriter does prove more than equipped to hold her own against such a powerful performance. From every hair toss and raised foot, Grande embodies the pink-shrouded vacuousness of Galinda. And each of them have fabulous voices to boot.
The other cast members, and formidable ones at that, get much less to do and therefore impress, but Yeoh as the stern Dean of Sorcery makes a mark as does Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz. Jonathan Bailey is charming as the frivolous prince Fiyero Tigelaar who draws the attention of both Galinda and Elphaba. His song and dance number, Dancing Through Life, is catchy and fun and we hope to see more of him in Act II.
Even with its overly long runtime, Wicked ends on a high note, literally, with Erivo’s rebellion and the incredible performance of Defying Gravity. Though there is powerful social messaging and some of it is really dark, especially with the events around the world, the film has enough lightness of being to make it a thoroughly enjoyable watch. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Wicked the film becomes the definitive introduction to the wonderful world of Oz for Generation Alpha.