Watching Wicked in 2024 has an eerily disturbing feeling.
That’s not because the movie was bad. In fact, it was the polar opposite. I haven’t thought of I would like the movie adaptation better than the original stage musical, especially being stage trained myself.
What I found disturbing was that it felt really like art imitates life – a fraud assuming absolute power by an establishment that is willing to lie and lay accusations to stay in power while building a common enemy without proof to ‘unite people’ for their own agenda.
Does that sound familiar?
Looking pass all the glamour and singing and spectaculars is a dark world that has no tolerance for anyone who holds a different opinion. Either you lean into it, or you got cast out and hunted down under piles of lies, even though you might once be considered as an asset.
I don’t know how many people will read into this subtext nowadays, but as I sat through the 2 hours 40 minutes in the absolute darkness of the cinema, it had multiple times, in multiple ways sent chills down my spine, as I did feel that we are really living in the world of Oz nowadays.
Politics and personal sensitivity aside, Wicked, as I said, was one of the few occasions that I fell in love with a movie adaptation over the stage original.
I was sceptical at first with Ariana Grande cast as Glinda. Not because of I that thought she doesn’t have the singing chops, but because I don’t know how she could possibly make a seemingly shallow and upbeat character interesting on screen without making her ridiculously annoying in the most caricatural way. However, her Glinda, despite seemingly shallow and annoying on the surface, was layered and emotionally subtle when required. That was something I really appreciated. Especially in the media of films, a soulless character will just be more soulless through the lens of the camera. But Ariana’s Glinda put so much more subtext into that character, from initially thinking the world spins around her, to later realised that there are more to that (with occasional brilliant slip backs to stay true to the character) was natural and unpretentious. It was especially heart breaking during the last scene when she had to make the decision between friendship and the world. Ariana just hit the right notes in all directions and manner.
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba was no surprise and well done. But that’s what I expected of her, being one of the few EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) nominees around. Her chemistry with Ariana was no denying and whenever both of them were on the screen, whether fighting or celebrating, they lit up the screen with sparkles everywhere. I think this duo is just one of the best surprises we had in 2024, and we sorely needed a good surprise after a hell of a year. Wicked couldn’t come at a better time, despite signalling the entrance of a dark age just like its world was portrayed in the movie.
Some people wonder whether Jonathan Bailey was cast because of his good looks and rise to prominence since Bridgeton and Fellow Travelers. But one must understand that he was staged trained and an experienced musical performer. Watching him Dancing Through Life on Wicked was a stark contrast to his gut-wrenching performance on Fellow Travelers. That demonstrated how versatile Jonathan is, and versatility is hard to find sometimes when you can easily get shoehorned into boxes and roles. Jonathan’s acting is about his looks, not just his face, but his gazes. He uses his eyes to tell the story and reflect emotions than relying on just his face, which probably most audiences will be focusing on. His thoughts, integrity, doubts etc. were all shown through his gazes, and that added a lot of depth to just face acting.
There are a lot more I wanted to talk about with Wicked, like the dynamics of Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum (whom I start to feel Hollywood started to type cast him unfortunately), but then it will turn this blog into an academic essay.
I don’t know whether you like musicals, especially musical movies, but Wicked came here just in time, at least from my point of view, to reminded us of this wicked world that we are living in.
