'Wonka' review: Chalamet shines in wholesome family musical

The exceedingly creative and good natured "Wonka" has a sweet tooth where it counts: its heart.

Co-writer and director Paul King, whose "Paddington" films are so beloved they occupy their own corner of cult fandom, brings a similar energy to his take on author Roald Dahl's eccentric chocolatier.

He provides a childlike sense of whimsy and wonder to the production, creates sets and costumes that look as though they're torn from the pages of a children's book and fills out his cast with a murderer's row of knockout English actors. The result: a charming, delightful, delectable good time made for both children and adults who are children at heart, which firmly stands on its own apart from any "Wonka" adaptations that have come before it. And that's a good thing.

Timothée Chalamet stars as a young Willy Wonka, powered by dreams of bringing his wondrous, enchanting chocolates to the masses. He's not just out here slanging any old candy bars: his chocolates are imbued with tiny bits of magic, like his famous "hoverchocs," which literally lift people off their feet. Neither the left or right Twix bars can do that.

Wonka arrives by boat to London, where he expects to make it big in the city's chocolate trade. Instead, he's immediately challenged by the local chocolate mafia, Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Fickelgruber (Matthew Baynton), and Prodnose (Matt Lucas), who have cornered the local market on chocolate and seek to keep it in its mediocre state. One taste of Wonka's chocolates and they know they cannot compete, so they conspire to shut him down.

They send Wonka to live with Mrs. Scrubbit (Oscar winner Olivia Colman, unrecognizable at first), who saddles her guests with lawless contracts that pin them to a life of indentured servitude. In the hotel basement where he's sent to toil away he meets others who have fallen victim to Scrubbit's scam, including Abacus Crunch ("Downton Abbey's" Jim Carter), a one-time accountant, and Noodle (Calah Lane), an orphan who becomes Wonka's best friend and partner-in-crime. She helps him bust out of the basement in a laundry cart on a daily basis and he tries to get his chocolate business up and running while she helps him learn to read, a skill Wonka missed out on in his single-minded determination catering to all things chocolate.

Rowan Atkinson is on board as a priest, Sally Hawkins is Wonka's dearly departed mother (she appears in flashbacks), Detroit's Keegan Michael Key is a choco-holic cop on the take and Hugh Grant plays an ornery, pompous, untrustworthy thief, who also happens to be an Oompa Loompa. And yes, there are songs: The score sprinkles notes of "Pure Imagination" throughout, and Chalamet and crew take part in all manner of song-and-dance numbers, lovable in their throwback MGM musical style.

It's that throwback attitude and approach that makes "Wonka" such a winning endeavor: this is wholesome family entertainment, not winking or ironic or employing air quotes of any kind to describe itself. Chalamet wholeheartedly understands this approach, and he helps brings the whole thing home: He's not snide like Gene Wilder's Wonka or a cracked victim of camp like Johnny Depp's. He's his own Wonka, endearing and pure, in a movie that's as joyful as one of Wonka's heavenly little concoctions.

agraham@detroitnews.com

'Wonka'

GRADE: B+

Rated PG: for some violence, mild language and thematic elements

Running time: 116 minutes

In theaters