Film Society x The Student: “Wicked”

The most glaring problem with “Wicked,” director Jon M. Chu’s film adaptation of the first half of the iconic Broadway musical, is how it looks. The setting of the “Wizard of Oz” villain origin story is bizarrely washed out and desaturated. While the costumes and sets are loaded with bright and vibrant imagery, the camera clouds them with a grey haze and ugly backlighting. This starkly contrasts with the original 1939 film, whose groundbreaking technicolor usage remains one of the most awe-inspiring cinematic displays of color to this day.

Defending these aesthetic choices, Chu explained that “what we wanted to do was immerse people into Oz, to make it a real place.” There is a logic to Chu’s explanation, given the “it was all a dream” ending of the original “Wizard of Oz,” but his reasoning has several issues. The first and most obvious is that real life is often vibrant and colorful. The idea that cinema must be washed out and grey in order to capture reality is untrue at best.

But this comment links to an even deeper problem with the film (and stage production, for that matter): a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes “The Wizard of Oz” so good. The emotions of “The Wizard of Oz” are so powerful not in spite of the distance with which Oz exists from reality, but rather because of this separation. The idea that a basis of realism is a necessity for creating authentic emotion, and authentic relationships, is so thoroughly rebuked by the source material of “Wicked,” it’s almost shocking that its director abides by it.

This leads to the real issue with “Wicked.” It is insistent on taking everything magical and inexplicable from “The Wizard of Oz” and conforming it to a system of rules and logic. There are countless scenes in “Wicked” essentially dedicated to sucking the wonder out of “The Wizard of Oz” with pointless explanations. Take, for instance, a scene where the Wizard shows Elphaba, the main character, his plans for the future of Oz. Oz, he explains, will have a brick road leading right to his palace. But he still is not sure what color to make it. He flips through a number of options — red, blue, yellow, and purple — before Elphaba says “Wait … go back one.” The Wizard, skeptical, says, “Yellow, really?”

This is just one of several scenes that made me facepalm in the theater. Is it truly necessary to explain exactly how the yellow brick road became yellow? Must there be an explanation for how the Wicked Witch of the West got her broom, or how the monkeys grew wings? The incessant prequel-ism of “Wicked” is by far its most annoying quality. It adds nothing to its story to have these explanatory tangents, and it most certainly does not add anything to “The Wizard of Oz.” These things are magical and wonderful due to their mystery.

The story of “Wicked” — which follows Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a girl who is outcast and mistreated because of her green skin, and the bond she forms with Glinda (Ariana Grande), a privileged and popular aristocrat, eventually leading both of them to their destinies as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good — is a strong one, even if it is familiar. Its refusal to fully embrace its fantastical nature, however, is its downfall.

This can additionally be seen in the way the film stages its musical numbers. Even the final number, the iconic showstopper “Defying Gravity,” is weakened by Chu’s insistence upon realism. Erivo’s rendition of the song is genuinely incredible, but Chu suppresses its full potential, preventing viewers from immersing themselves in the scene. He does this by maddeningly splitting it into several short segments. Erivo will sing a verse, only for the song to be interrupted by characters walking upstairs, or sharing brief dialogue. It rips the audience out of the song’s space and places them back in reality, but instead of adding dramatic tension, it kills the momentum of the song.

With all that said, it will perhaps come as a surprise to readers of this review that I actually quite enjoyed the film, despite my many misgivings. Much of my enjoyment came down to the exemplary performances of the two leads. Erivo, on top of having a mesmerizingly powerful voice, plays Elphaba with an incredible amount of sensitivity, and a perfect balance between shyness and arrogance. I was worried the presence of a megastar like Grande would be distracting, but she disappears into her role, and provides necessary comedic relief while remaining a rounded and nuanced character.

These performances created a deeply realized bond between Elphaba and Glinda, which is key to making the film work. Here, I must give credit to Chu for a decision I had initially found baffling. Despite being two hours and forty minutes long, longer than the entirety of the Broadway production, “Wicked” only covers the first half of the musical. When I first heard about this choice, it struck me as a needless cash grab, but I’m happy to say I was wrong. The film doesn’t feel long at all, and the extended runtime allows it to explore the bond between its leads in much more depth than the original musical ever could. It will be interesting to see how the second act holds up on its own, but extending the first part makes it far more effective.

Ultimately, the thing that makes the “Wicked” movie work is the same thing that made the “Wicked” musical work — the songs are really damn good. Whether it is the light and humorous “Popular,” the soul-crushing “The Wizard and I,” or the infectious nine-minute-long “Dancing Through Life,” every single musical number in the film is a hit.

Though Chu often tries his best to ruin these sequences through mystifying framing decisions, the incredible work of the choreographers, performers, and songwriter Stephen Schwartz defies him to make them great anyway. Despite my issues with the song’s presentation, when Cynthia Erivo sang her final belt at the close of “Defying Gravity,” even I, so cynical that I thought a massive budget Hollywood movie musical would never win me over, shed a tear. “Wicked” is a deeply flawed film, but for musical lovers like me, it’s an undeniable treat.