Film Review: Wicked: Part 1 is all about the spectacle — and that's why it drags
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo star in Wicked
- Wicked: Part 1
- ★★★☆☆
- In cinemas
Born green, raised by a nanny bear and plagued by magical powers she can neither understand nor control – is it any wonder that Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) turned out (PG)?
Except she doesn’t, not really: the whole point of Gregory Maguire’s novel, from which the smash stage musical was originally adapted, is that the Wicked Witch of the West was wholly misunderstood in The Wizard of Oz.
Spurned by her family and mocked by society, Elphaba is enrolled in Shiz University by the Dean of Sorcery, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), who promises to help the young tyro to master her raw talent.
There, Elphaba encounters the vain, self-centred Glinda (Ariana Grande), who initially covets her rival’s facility for magic.
A mutual loathing ensues, but once an unlikely friendship blossoms the pair set out for Emerald City, summoned by no less a personage than the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) himself.
And they all lived happily ever – no, wait, there’s more. Lots more.
Clocking in at two hours and forty minutes, this Part 1 is just a sliver shorter than the original musical’s entire run-time, and largely because quite a few of the song-and-dance numbers do little to advance the plot, instead interrupting the story’s momentum for the sake of unnecessary spectacle.
That’s a pity, because otherwise there’s much to enjoy here: while Ariana Grande’s portrayal of Glinda as an airhead is occasionally funny but a little too affected to fully convince, Cynthia Erivo is terrific as Elphaba, rooting the more fantastical elements in a poignant account of a young woman ostracised for the colour of her skin.
Jeff Goldblum is surprisingly muted as the Wizard, but maybe he’s saving the full-on flamboyance for Part II?
Meanwhile, a significant subplot introduces a sinister aspect to Oz, as its animal citizenry finds itself the subject of a pogrom-style persecution, which serves to anchor the otherwise feather-light story to a timeless theme.
Musical highlights include the heart-breaking and half-whispered and the show-stopping , both of which, unsurprisingly, feature Cynthia Erivo at the top of her game.
