There are two kinds of people in the world: People who hate when I start a review by saying there are two kinds of people in the world, and people who don’t read my reviews. The point is there are always dichotomies, and a film like “Wicked” — Jon M. Chu’s two-part adaptation of the popular (excuse me, “-lahr!”) Broadway musical prequel to “The Wizard of Oz” — makes these dichotomies clear. Fans of the Broadway musical are likely to be enchanted by this epic production. People who are only vaguely aware of it, but have probably at least heard “Defying Gravity” unless they’ve been living in seclusion for two decades, may also find it familiar … and not necessarily in a good way.
Because hey, of course it’s familiar. It’s a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” one of the most culturally ubiquitous works of art to emerge from the 20th century. Even though the original film was a box office dud that didn’t make its money back for a whole decade — i.e. the exact kind of film that Warner Bros., which now makes unthinkable amounts of money from “The Wizard of Oz,” would delete for a tax break today — the film’s metaphors, imagery, characters and songs are now recognized all over the world. It’s classic Hollywood entertainment of the highest order.
But “Wicked” is a prequel, not just an homage. And like most modern prequels, it goes out of its way to generate dramatic backstories for the characters and everything they’ve ever said, every article of clothing they’ve ever worn and just about anything they’ve ever touched. It’s a dramatic approach that congratulates the audience for remembering the source material and, often, little else. If the story was told in chronological order, there’s no way all these typically incidental details would be fetishized. (Unless there’s a scene in “The Godfather” where they make a big deal out of how they built the boat where Fredo dies in “Part 2,” and somehow I missed it.)
“Wicked” does, to be fair, predate many of the movies that drove this cliché into the ground. Gregory Maguire’s novel was written in 1995, the stage show was first produced in 2003. But like many stories that take a long time to get adapted to the screen, “Wicked” got lapped by its own imitators. One might roll their eyes at watching the so-called “Wicked” Witch of the West receiving her iconic pointy hat as a dramatic plot point, or when Glinda the “Good” Witch muses about why wands need to have a point at the end, explaining why her own wand will later boast a chintzy starburst instead. Films like the “Hannibal Rising,” “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and, let’s be honest, “Oz the Great and Powerful” already drove these kinds of in-jokes into the ground.
But “Wicked” is no mere case of reverse-engineering. The film’s playful, subversive reinterpretation of “The Wizard of Oz” as a work of propaganda, designed to obfuscate the true story of how political dissidents and minority groups are demonized by fascist con artists who trade in theatricality instead of competence, is fully developed and still (to our collective dismay) incredibly salient. The symptoms of prequel-itis are entertainingly self-referential, but also help deconstruct the original story down to its component parts, in the process revealing just how easily merchandise-friendly iconography can be used to warp our minds.
Oh right, the plot! “Wicked” stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a young woman destined to be labelled “Wicked” by the easily manipulated residents of Oz. The film begins with the very ending of the 1939 classic, when everyone rushed out into the streets, happy as they can be that the person they hate has died a violent death. Glinda the Good Witch (Ariana Grande) is about to run off and spread the good (?) word when a little Munchkin girl asks if the rumors are true, and if the two witches really used to be friends.
At this point, Glinda starts telling their story, which takes 160 minutes to get through half of it because this is a two-part movie. I guess Glinda wasn’t in that much of a rush to get going, and also the Munchkins had nothing better to do that day, since nobody interrupts her to say, “Look, we didn’t ask for your whole life story.”
But her life story is fun, so let’s run with it. Glinda tells them how Elphaba was born with green skin, which made her an outsider, and also with magical powers, which made her dangerous. Glinda was a spoiled rich girl with an overinflated ego. They met at boarding school and were forced to be roommates, even though they were polar opposites. Elphaba was reserved and cynical, Glinda was outgoing and perky. (They were the original Oz couple!)
Over the course of the film, Elphaba learns about her magical powers, comes out of her shell and discovers that Oz is cruelly persecuting all the talking animals. Meanwhile, Glinda does her mean girl schtick but starts growing as a person, quite by accident. In order to look good in contrast to Elphaba, she repeatedly claims she has altruistic intentions, and then gradually lets that deception become her reality. It’s a remarkably effective story about redemption, at least in this first half, because Glinda doesn’t become a decent person after learning just one dramatic lesson. Her character flaws back her into a corner until character development is her only way out.
The complexity of the character dynamics in “Wicked,” matched by Erivo’s deeply committed performance and Grande’s superb physical comedy, do a fine job of keeping Chu’s film rooted in reality. The rest of the movie looks quite fake, adopting a production design philosophy that emphasizes the theatricality of Oz, which may be fanciful but isn’t immersive or particularly convincing. Then again “The Wizard of Oz” never successfully pretended it wasn’t filmed on a soundstage. This is a fantasy world. The fact that it doesn’t look “real” isn’t the worst criticism.
Still, it’s hard to shake the feeling that despite the film’s giant budget, it often looks like it was filmed at a local amusement park, with CGI that ranges from effective to … let’s just be kind and say “not.” But Chu is no stranger to lovable artifice, having successfully transformed the “Step Up” franchise into a larger-than-life alternate superhero reality where dancers are basically X-Men and dance fights solve every problem. Between the “Step Ups,” “In the Heights” and now “Wicked,” Chu has proven himself one of the few modern movie musical directors who understands how musicals work, films them like actual stage shows, and sometimes captures that rare cinematic feeling: enchantment.
“Wicked” is a great show, but it’s only half a movie. It’s hard to gauge the success of a film when there’s a very good chance the next installment could retroactively ruin it. (I’m looking at you, “It: Chapter Two.”) But despite the film’s flaws — inconsistent visual effects and a supporting cast that can’t keep up with Erivo and Grande vocally (then again, few people can) — it’s a bright and colorful whirlwind. The story hits hard, the characters come alive, the music and dancing are a delight.
I suspect pre-existing fans of “Wicked” will be very satisfied. And if everyone else doesn’t fall in love with it, at least they’ll finally understand what all the fuss was about.
