To accompany the release of Wonka, in which Timothée Chalamet plays a young version of Roald Dahl’s madcap chocolatier, a life-sized sculpture of the 27-year-old actor in Wonka garb was unveiled in London's Trafalgar Square, made out of 90 litres of melted chocolate (which is, according to the extremely detailed press release, the equivalent of over 1,000 chocolate bars). The statue, crafted by chocolatier Jen Lindsey-Clark, stands 6ft 2 (with hat) and over 8ft (with plinth). It weighs 100kg. It took 200 hours to make. (Despite all these stats, the release did not mention what would become of the statue and when this intrepid reporter went to Trafalgar Square the following day, there was no trace of choco-Timmy: not even a whiff.) What to make of such a stunt? Marvel at human engineering? Feel reassured that how, even a very good looking person, looks a little sad in chocolate form on a grey day in Trafalgar Square? Or accept it as a sign that Chalamet is officially a Movie Star?
Wonka, directed by Paddington maestro Paul King, juggles a lot of plot: a chocolate cartel (almost funny), mummy issues (moving), illiteracy (also moving), enforced labour (good for a song or two). For a film which tells the origin of fiction’s most famous chocolatier, there is not much chocolate making, but perhaps King saw those Lindt adverts and thought it silly to try to compete. All this may have overwhelmed a different leading man, but Chalamet handles it with an elfin swagger. There was some online upset (isn’t it always online?) when King revealed that Chalamet didn’t have to audition for the role – the director saw footage of Chalamet performing as his rapping alter-ego “Lil Timmy Tim” during his school days – but it is hard to imagine anyone else in this role.
There is a scene halfway through Wonka in which Chalamet breaks into a zoo and milks a giraffe named Abigail (no response from PETA yet) while attempting to come up with words that rhyme with the name his zoo-breaking accomplice, Noodle (Calah Lane). He needs to know! He needs to sing about Noodle! Noodle needs a reason to exist! As the credits on this two-hour film rolled, I thought back to this bonkers-but-sweet tableau, not least because it involved a grown man milking a giraffe, but also because it’s really not hard to come up with words that rhyme with noodle: toodle, doodle, poodle, strudel, frugal, bugle, Google. But in the moment, I too thought it was an impossible task, so swept up was I in Chalamania.
Chalamet is not a new kid on this block. The 27-year-old wept movingly by a fireplace in his break-out Call Me By Your Name, he has played teen heartthrob in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (and teen dirtbag in Gerwig’s Lady Bird). He’s ventured into sci-fi as the lead of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation. But Wonka represents something different altogether. It’s a Christmas film: there are songs and snowflakes. With its nondescript English old-timey surroundings – it was filmed in Oxford and Bath – it is also pretty much a period movie. And it is the film which gets the whole family on board. The one, like Paddington 2, British families watch in that stretch between 25 December and the New Year, when time collapses, and you need something on the screen which entertains both nephews and new partners.
That is the badly-kept-secret of King’s productions: though Wonka is positioned as a children’s movie, and children will no doubt like it, these are films for adults. At a preview screening, the audience member who laughed hardest was the fully-grown man sitting next to me. It is tailor made for fans of British comedy: Simon Farnaby turns up as a zookeeper (he also co-wrote the screenplay with King), Hugh Grant’s turn as an Oompa-Loompa is good, Olivia Colman is also there. And what seasoned cinema goers realise is that movie stars are rare. You watch plenty of films, you see plenty of actors, and many of them are serviceable. In Wonka, Chalamet has to be funny, charming, sad, a little jerky. And he has to sing. He has earned his golden ticket to the Hollywood walk of fame.
‘Wonka’ is in cinemas now
Henry Wong is a senior culture writer at Esquire, working across digital and print. He covers film, television, books, and art for the magazine, and also writes profiles.
