WICKED-- PART ONE (2024)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological, sociological*

*SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS*

I saw WICKED with no prior experience of the 1995 book, its prose sequels or the 2003 musical. Going in, I only knew that it purported to be the story of the Witch of the West's early days in the land of Oz, and how she became (or became known for being) "wicked."

The shortest and most accurate review is to say that Gregory Maguire's creation, as transmitted through the musical of Steven Schwartz and this film by Jon M. Chu, is generally meretricious. I've read about some of the various differences between book, play or movie on Wikipedia, and whatever differences exist seem of marginal importance. All seem to share one central motif: when seen through a new narrative, a villain can engage the reader's sympathies.

This is far from a new idea. Dracula, the undead seducer, took on more romantic and/or heroic dimensions in 1960s pop fiction. In 1971 John Gardner published GRENDEL, portraying the story of Beowulf from the viewpoint of the hero's monstrous enemy. George Lucas's "prequel trilogy" focused upon the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker. But Maguire's re-interpretation of the Witch hinges on just one change in the Oz narrative: that everyone in Oz has a problem with Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), unfavored daughter of the mayor of Munchkinland, being green.

To countenance this new narrative, one must ignore everything that one might know about the nature of Oz as expressed in the classic 1939 movie, much less the Baum books. Both the one film and the corpus of books express symbolic truths about the characters through fantastic contrivances. But Maguire's Oz is really just our world-- the world of intolerant cliques and power-mad politicians-- with a smattering of fantasy dusting it over. Elphaba's viridescence is just a mark of the "otherness" so prized by contrarian politics. Once she is marked as an "other," viewers can see in her any marginalization they please, be it of race, gender or sexual orientation. 

Not having read the source material, I can't be sure everything is Maguire's fault. But Chu's film certainly does a paltry job of describing Elphaba's early years as the only green (and non-short) Munchkin. Her parental heritage-- which causes her to emit CARRIE-like bursts of telekinesis-- is alluded to but won't be fully revealed not get revealed until the sequel film, in contrast to the musical. Either way, everyone should see the reveal coming from a mile away. The movie's main concern is to focus on twenty-something Elphaba when she ends up going to college with her half-sister, and all the ostracization the green lady faces.

I don't have a problem with showing the drama of a pariah's ostracization by a superficial elite. What's most meretricious about the WICKED script, though, is that Elphaba doesn't have any particular moral compass against which to measure her opponents. After about an hour of splashy musical numbers in which Elphaba reacts against her fellow students-- mostly the conceited Galinda (Ariana Grande) -- the script belatedly introduces the idea of a conspiracy against the sentient "animal people" of Oz. Elphaba, as a "good witch" unfairly deemed wicked, is of course of the beasts' side, but her sympathies might have seemed less knee-jerk had we seen them foregrounded during Elphaba's early years. . (Incidentally, the "talking animals" schtick seems to come mostly from the play, not the prose novel.)

The pace picks up somewhat once Elphaba bonds with her roommate Galinda, and they become besties despite all the things Galinda does to hurt or embarrass the green girl. Elphaba's powers-- a not-very-subtle indicator of her superiority to the commonplace denizen of Oz-- elevate her at college and make it possible that she may be able to have an audience with the realm's ruler, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum). The script suggests, but does not state outright, that Elphaba hopes that the Wizard might banish her avocado coloring somehow, and make her akin to one of the "regular" races of Oz. (The diversity of racial makeup in the 2024 Oz has an unintentional satirical aspect, showing that even if a "human" culture is super-diverse in terms of race and gender, it still won't be prejudice-free.) 

I won't say that Elphaba didn't stir my sympathies from time to time, but she's a very one-note character, as is Fiyero, the relentlessly handsome hunk whom both Elphaba and Galinda fancy. Fiyero's arc isn't very important in Part One, suggesting that the filmmakers intend to build him up in Part Two. It's almost all about the two women and their fragile friendship, but the one benefit of this focus is that singer Ariana Grande largely steals every scene she's in. She's at least given more than one dimension, which is also more than one can say about the pretty-damn-obvious "mystery villain" who's behind the plot against the talking animals.

Even at this early point in the film's release, it's clearly become a hit. I found most of Schwatz's lyrics forgettable, with the possible exception of "What Is This Feeling?," but I can't deny there's a lot of professional talent assembled to sell this moldy chestnut. In the Wikipedia page for Maguire, he's quoted as saying that in WICKED he wanted to deal with the problem of evil. But to judge from the adaptation of book and musical, no one associated with WICKED can offer anything more than platitudes about said problem.