Review: Wicked

Directed by: John M. Chu

Written by: Winnie Holzman & Dana Fox

Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande-Butera, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang

Rating: [3.5/5]

Nothing can unite people more than communal hate towards something or someone and it does not take much nudging. This especially becomes the case when this hatred goes towards someone seen as different because of their looks or their personality, which Wicked makes the case for in the creation of the idea of the infamous “Wicked Witch of the West.” The long-awaited Broadway musical hit has finally made its way to the silver screen, and for the most part it does a splendid job in setting up its larger story. 

Arriving at Shiz University to drop off her little sister, Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) stands out because of her green skin, but gets noticed for her magical ability by the Dean of Sorcery Studies, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), who offers her admission to the university as well. Now having a private session with Madame Morrible, Elphaba rooms with the popular and bubbly Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande) as they both seek to become powerful wizards. 

Typically when a project has a track record of struggling to make it through production and ever see its release, it feels like a bad cloud hovering over it to the point where the final proves not worth the wait. The fans of this musical have waited decades for it to finally get a big-screen adaptation, and this feature certainly bucked that trend. Getting Jon M. Chu to direct the film with the run he’s been on and a fantastic cast, they have more than delivered on what everyone wanted with this feature. While personally not having any experience with this musical other than watching The Wizard of Oz, this feature certainly tries to paint a distinctly different picture of the Wicked Witch of the West with a sympathetic brush. A story decision that at the moment does not carry much water for me given the purely evil action we all saw by this character in the 1939 classic, but it being just the first half of the story, I must presume it will become clearer in the next one. However, right now all we have is this first portion and it raises some questions. 

We see Elphaba as this champion for the maligned, which in this world happens to be talking animals, which those in power seek to completely eradicate from existence. This integral plot device draws the line in the sand with Elphaba and other characters and it makes complete sense why our lead character would stand up for these animals seeing as she has been an outsider for her entire life because of the color of her skin. Nothing about this feature carries any subtlety nor did it have any intention to do so. It lays out its themes in heavy-handed ways but it makes it quite clear what arc Elphaba must experience to reach the point where she gets painted as this horrific villain for all to hate. 

What truly makes this film hum is this incredible cast and a pair in Cynthia Ervio and Ariana Grande who simply dazzle as the central duo of this story. Ariana Grande has always done well in being more comedic fare, with many of her appearances in comedy shows demonstrating as much, but she stands out immensely through this performance. Intentionally airy but also very sweet at her core, Grande, for as much as she’s this world-famous musical figure, disappears into this role and makes Galinda such a joy to watch in going through her own arc because of her interactions with Elphaba. As one can imagine, she does a great job with the vocal talent demanded when taking on this role, but it presents the perfect segway to praise Cynthia Erivo.

She has displayed her singing and acting ability aplenty before with her different roles but she infuses them together like never before with her performance as Elphaba. Erivo effortlessly brings this sympathy to this character that does a tremendous job endearing us towards her, which partly takes me out of the film given as there’s no way this character eventually becomes “The Wicked Witch of the West.” There’s not even a smidgen or inkling of negativity from this character, which is part of the point of villainizing her but there needs to be something. Erivo’s almost too good and when you combine that with the way she belts out her songs particularly in “The Wizard and I” and “Defying Gravity” it further proves this as a supreme showcase that she absolutely nailed. 

While feeling every bit of its elongated runtime, bland cinematography, and some general story issues for a “Part One”, Wicked does a great job bringing together its two lead characters. Each musical sequence hits displaying John M. Chu has proven himself as a reliable studio big-hitter for finally ushering in the movie of this widely beloved production. This cast does all of the heavy lifting for me and paper over the cracks in an impressive manner. If anything, this feature made me excited to see how they land the ship given I have no idea where this story will go other than what leads to the original film.