Against all expectations, Wicked (2024) has ended up being so, so good. Trust in the songs, trust in the style, and you’ll get as much out as you put in. It isn’t flawless – but it’s a brilliant ride to be on.
So who expected the Wicked Witch of the West to finally return to the big screen? It was twenty years ago that the original novel Wicked was optioned for a film, transformed by Stephen Schwartz into a hit musical, at last greenlit for film in 2012, stuck in development hell for the better part of a decade before limping through a writer’s strike, a difficult press tour and a controversial marketing campaign. Now breathe, because Wicked (2024) is, against those odds, incredibly enjoyable.
Start with the songs. No good songs? No-good musical. But Wicked (2024) doesn’t just have a handful of reliably wonderful classics to lean on from the stage version. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are stunning singers both together and solo – words can’t (obviously) communicate just how these actors and their choir perfectly ace every note of each complex musical number. The songs sound just like they’re being sung live on stage, left tastefully free of any editorial touching – it’s all the power of a live performance in the cinema.
But plot matters as well. Erivo is the pre-wickedness Elphaba, last seen melted by a bucket of water in The Wizard of Oz (1939), reimagined now from her own sympathetic viewpoint. Her only crime is being born unaccountably green – and the disgust and rejection of Oz’s people haunts her as she tries to prove herself at university. Ariana Grande’s soon-to-be-good witch Galinda is a popular and catty student adored by all except Elphaba, whose own capability in sorcery leaves Galinda seething.
They’re a classic odd couple, forced to room together. Ariana Grande shows off her comedy chops and gets easily 95% of the film’s laughs, evoking Margot Robbie’s own comedic take on Barbie to wring gallons of humour out of Galinda’s bubblegum-pink spoiled-brat niceness. It takes talent to get the biggest laugh of the film by lying on a bed, and Grande somehow keeps the audience convinced that this character’s got a heart of gold under it all! Expect more serious acting roles for her in future.
But none of that works without Cynthia Erivo as our comedic straight man and vulnerable protagonist. She brings a sense of tragedy and innocence to Elphaba that hooks the audience in very well. We all know how this story will end, but she doesn’t – that wide-eyed longing for acceptance is the film’s emotional engine, Elphaba its doomed driver. The big social media hit from Wicked (2024) was Erivo’s eleven o’clock powerhouse number, ‘Defying Gravity’, but that’s not even her own best work in this film. Her first solo song, ‘The Wizard and I’, is the moment her character bursts to life, recounting her longing, her trauma, and her growing optimism, and combined with the cleverly tragic lyrics and natural brilliance of Erivo’s voice, it’s the first of a few jaw-dropping moments from the film.
And that illustrates one of the small flaws that amounts to a crack across the face of Wicked (2024). Erivo’s ‘The Wizard and I’ works so well because it’s entirely self-contained. However, many other songs are stretched over ten-minute sequences or sometimes bafflingly cut short just when they hit their stride, leaving Peter Dinklage and Jeff Goldblum’s perfectly-cast Wizard of Oz in particular without enough to sing. Jonathan Bailey as the charismatic prince Fiyero has roguish chemistry with every character and the furniture too, but his only proper number is cut up across a montage that’s much too long.
Speaking of Peter Dinklage, his subplot as a talking goat professor introduces the quasi-fascist policies insidiously silencing animals across Oz. It’s hard-hitting stuff, and does hit with sinister contemporary relevance. But just like the film’s sweeping style, it’s not subtle, and that harsh, in-your-face tone doesn’t gel at all well with the fluffy frivolous university adventures that’re rather closer to Mean Girls (2004) than Schindler’s List (1993). The film never really reconciles these two tones and the result leaves the bombastic finale feeling weaker than it could have been, even with Erivo’s musical heroics. But don’t forget the fact that this criticism is even on the cards shows that Wicked (2024) aspires to more than most musicals. And this is only the first part, despite evoking a satisfying, completed narrative.
It’s actually bloody hard to not give this film five stars. If it had a bit more discipline and could navigate its dueling themes and tones more delicately, Wicked (2024) could in all seriousness be one of the best film musicals of the past decade, after a string of recent big-budget flops – with Cats (2019) and Joker: Folie a Deux (2024) serving as grisly reminders of what can happen in this genre. After the unexpected joy of realising how exhilarating and excellent this film is, though, a trace of disappointment remains. But do go and see it anyway. It looks great on the big screen, and those songs can’t be missed in a cinema.
Still: Universal Pictures