Saturday, November 30, 2024

Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: Wicked (Part 1)


After Thanksgiving dinner, we absconded from the Fortress of Ineptitude to go see the film adaption of the smash Broadway musical Wicked.

"We" being my wife and I along with our son and his fiance.    



(Rosie the dog stayed home. She stubbornly refuses to accept anyone other than Kristin Chenoweth in the role of Glinda.)  

I went into to this movie with some working knowledge of the source material. It is ostensibly the story of the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz, who she is and how she came to be. And the concept that perhaps people are not who we expect them to be. 

Which is brings us to... Wicked: Part 1.  

Wicked: Part 1 is based on the Broadway stage musical.

Which was based on the 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire.

Which was based on the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

Which was based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

And people say there are no original ideas.   


Wicked: Part 1 begins at the end. 

Glinda arrives by pink magic bubble to confirm for the residents of Munchkinland that the stories are true: the Wicked Witch of the West is dead!

Man are the Munchkins psyched about that! They break into song and dance while someone pulls out a massive wooden effigy of the Wicked Witch to set fire to.  

Glinda seems a bit... reserved, disassociated from the festivities around her. 

Which tees up the movie proper as we get the story of the origin of the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Say hello to Elphaba Thropp.   

She was born green.  

She's disowned by her father who is not in fact her father.  (Her mother had an affair with a travelling salesman.)  

She's abused and bullied as a child as she begins to present erratic displays of her magical abilities.  

Elphaba arrives at Shiz University to see off her paraplegic younger sister Nessarose.  An inadvertant display of Elphaba's magic gets the attention of Madame Morrible, the Dean of Sorcery, who offers to make Elphaba as her only student to study magic.

And then there's Glinda. (Or Galinda. It's a thing.) 

She's pretty and sweet and so very used to getting her own way which includes a private suite at Shiz.  

Madame Morrible makes Elphaba Glinda's roommate. 

And they immediately become best friends and no, they do not but eventually they get there.  

I'm not going to venture into the weeds of this nearly 3 hour long movie to explore the twists and turns of the plot, the minutia of story details that brings Elphaba to her power and to her destiny as the Wicked Witch of the West.

Elphaba does nothing wicked.  

She vows to stand against others who are. 

But it is propaganda, malicious lies that will make the Kingdom of Oz know that the green skinned woman in the black cloak is the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Wicked: Part 1 ends with Elphaba breaking loose from the surely bonds of Earth to the anthemic epic show stopping song "Defying Gravity".   

Wicked: Part 1 looks gorgeous, the set designs that build the world of Oz are nothing short of astonishing. Costuming is completely on point.  

And the performances.  Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda more than live up to hype. They bring their respective roles to life so very well through word and song. I'm not expert enough to tell you why but I can emphatically say they do not suck.  

Also on hand are Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton), Ethan Slater (Broadway's Spongebob Squarepants) and Bowen Yang (most of the really good sketches on Saturday Night Live.) 

Also popping up for cameos from the first Broadway production of Wicked are original Elphaba and Glinda actresses Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth.    

Michelle Yeoh may have questionable singing skills but when she goes into cold hearted ass kicking mode as Madame Morrible, she can't be beat. 

If there is a weak link in the acting chain, it would be Jeff Goldblum.  The Wizard follows the rote outline of a standard issue Jeff Goldblum smarmy character.  Still, the Wizard is an unscrupulous and deceitful con man so maybe Jeff Goldblum as Jeff Goldblum is what we need here, maybe, who knows.  

Let's talk about the ending.

There isn't one. 

Well, it right there in the title: Wicked: Part 1.

What pray tell is the suspense for Part 2 when Elphaba's fate is spelled out at the very start of Part 1 even before the credits roll. 

Director John M. Chu (In The Heights, Crazy Rich Asians) wanted "Defying Gravity" to be a big uplifting moment before delving into the darker stuff that follows in Act 2 of the play. 

So Wicked the movie gets 2 installments.  

So what's next except the inevitable. 

Unless...?

I have opted to avoid reading about the play or the book to try to preserve some suspense about the movie. But I have theories. 

About the role Elphaba needs to play in a kingdom turned against her... 



Tomorrow, it's a 2nd edition of Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post as we go back to the beginning: The Wizard of Oz.   

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