The stage is out and the screen is in with another adaptation of a Broadway musical hitting the screen. This time around, it’s the Wicked Witch’s turn.
As the title implies, this film is about the Wicked Witch of the West, though the audience gets to see her before she earned that title. In the movie, she is known by her name Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a young woman shunned by much of society because of her green skin, which has only made her closed off.
Because of her apparent magical abilities, though, she’s invited to the same mystical university her sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) is attending. There she meets the popular but ditzy Galinda (Arian Grande-Butera). After a poor first meeting, the two aren’t fans of each other, but end up becoming roommates.
As the songs roll out one-by-one in “Wicked,” it becomes blatantly obvious why the musical originally became such a sensation on Broadway. The music is sensational, with a plethora of exciting and lifting performances that power the film in several key scenes.
Some are better than others, but overall, the musical sequences in this picture have an infectious energy. They not only entertain, but serve to give the movie a great deal of personality. It of course helps having many of the songs performed by a pair who each have a major background in this space.
The experience Erivo and Grande bring from their music careers, as well as their work on the stage and screen, is apparent here. They command the screen and give the songs life, making for a memorable experience. Regardless of the song, whether it’s “Popular” at the midway point or “Defying Gravity” in the film’s final act, both actresses fully deliver.
The rest of the movie is… fine. One thing to note is that this is the first of two “Wicked” films, which made the work of director Jon Chu and the creative team a bit tricky. They had to create a good self-contained film that can stand on its own, and also be one half of a larger story.
The result of their work is sufficient, but not quite spectacular. The film is able to establish a rivalry-turned-friendship between Elphaba and Glinda, the former’s evolution into the witch of the west, and insert some romance. However, the pacing of the film to get the audience there is rough.
So much of the film takes place at the school while what feels like only a sliver takes place at the Emerald City. The problem is the green-shaded metro is where a lot of important things happen, and it feels like a lot gets crammed into a small amount of film reel. It causes much of the first two acts to feel too drawn out and the third to come across as rushed.
Another issue is how over the top some of the characters act. Now, it’s understandable that this would be the case to an extent since it’s inspired by a musical. However, when a musical is on a stage, it works for the actors to be a bit extra because they’re playing to an audience they can interact with.
Film is, of course, different, and what may play well as musical theater can lack a realism on screen. As a result, the way some of the characters behave ends up taking a viewer out of the moment. The biggest culprit of this are Glinda’s two school besties.
It’s not to say the performances are bad, they just needed to be dialed back a few notches for more grounded scenes to really stick emotionally and dramatically. The only performance that really is disappointing is Jeff Goldblum.
He has a distinct acting style and sometimes that works as a villain, a la “Thor: Ragnarok,” where his quirks as a performer could intertwine with that movie’s humor. The Wizard of Oz in this universe is a different beast, though, and Goldblum’s approach doesn’t quite work.
Visually, the film is a bit hit and miss. There are moments during songs that are sure to become iconic thanks not only to what’s being heard, but also by what’s being seen. The issue is that the use of CGI is too heavy at times. There’s an artificial feel to much of the world on screen, and there are times it doesn’t feel entirely lived in.
So, as said before, much of the film around the songs is a mixed bag. But as a musical, it makes sense for the songs to do the heavy lifting, and despite some drawbacks, the rest of the flick is put together well enough to be enjoyable overall. 3.5 out of 5.
Matthew Liedke on Film 