Wicked Will Win You Over With Style And Substance
Wicked begins in a puddle. While the stage musical starts with a blast of music directly to the face, Wicked Part One (technically the full name of the movie according to the title screen) starts by skimming over puddles, passing a bucket and then lingers on a witch’s hat. It is one of the few quiet moments in the entire film, ending when flying monkeys explode out of the tower taking us on a frantic flying journey over the Ozian countryside as the overture actually begins. While celebrating the Wicked Witch of the West’s death, Glinda the good witch (Ariana Grande) arrives in her bubble, confirming her death. We are off to the races, following this, as most of the movie takes place in a flashback.
If you’ve seen the musical you largely know what to expect, the only difference is that there’s more. Many of the sequences are cluttered with dancers but most set pieces that are added to the film are visually interesting and add good texture. There are some sweeping landscape shots, added scenes and a few extra verses. Almost every musical number has one more “thing” in it than the musical (I do believe that this counts for some of the film’s extra heftiness). There is one sequence at the end that could’ve been cut and saved us ten minutes. This film is a whopping two hours and forty minutes so a few minutes cut here and there probably wouldn’t hurt.
It introduces a formula fairly quickly where a character is visibly introduced, tells us about themself and then sings a song about themself which admittedly is a little off putting once you notice it. But the musical numbers are by and large too fun to really complain about. They have added quite a few pauses in songs for either additional dialogue or self-reflection which work in some cases (I love the one in “Defying Gravity”) but in some cases extend so long there’s almost a jumpscare when the actors start singing again.
That said, there are a great many feathers in this picture’s cap. The sets and the way they’re filmed is stunning, the colors are bright and sometimes pull in a technicolor sensibility. This version of Wicked has its own style and aesthetic which differentiates it from the stage musical almost immediately. Costume designer for this film Paul Tazewell (Hamilton) leaves it all on the table. Every costume, from school uniforms to dance costumes and everything in between was jaw dropping. I want several of the dresses and pairs of glasses from this film for my own collection.
Cynthia Erivo kills it in this performance. She is so dialed in and excellent as Elphaba that she kind of eats Ariana Grande’s lunch. Don’t get me wrong, Ariana is great but Cynthia is truly transcendent here. The rest of the cast is wonderful as well. Bowen Yang steals moment after moment, Michelle Yeoh is resplendent, Jonathan Bailey makes the audience audibly swoon and Jeff Goldblum is wonderful as our soft-shoeing Wizard of Oz. Goldblum’s version of “Sentimental Man” exceeded my expectations. There are really no misses in this casting which is good because we spend a whole lot of time with them.
While this movie was a little overlong, I didn’t find myself wondering about the time until the last half an hour, and even then it was because I was anxious to get to the film’s closing number. I don’t think it’s a perfect movie (it’s only half a story, technically, with Part Two scheduled for Nov. 21, 2025) but I did enjoy it much more than I thought I would as a musical theater purist who is film adaptation hesitant.
I give Wicked Part One (Universal Pictures; PG; 2 hrs 40 mins) a 4 out of 5.
