(2 stars)
The kooky fraud played by Jeff Goldblum in “Wicked: For Good” has a ditty explaining how he maintains his wizardly dominance: Once people believe in something, he shrugs, they’ll keep on believing no matter what.
Given its already record-breaking box office, the same appears likely to hold true for the less marvelous second half of director Jon M. Chu’s behemoth adaptation of the Broadway musical. Even after a year-long intermission, anyone whose jaw hung open during the final moments of “Wicked: Part 1,” as Cynthia Erivo obliterates “Defying Gravity” while tearing through the night sky, would have to be insane (or dead) not to return.
Unfortunately, the laws of physics are back in effect, and the second film is a letdown. How could it not be? The kids are grown up and the fun and games are over. There are only a couple of bangers left in Stephen Schwartz’s original score by the musical’s second act, which races to connect the narrative dots to “The Wizard of Oz.” With some additional material by screenwriters Dana Fox and Winnie Holzman (the latter also wrote the stage musical’s script), and a relatively fleet run time of 2 hours and 18 minutes (20-ish minutes less than the first), somehow “For Good” feels like it’s both scrambling between plot points and vamping to justify its existence.
First, an obvious warning: This is not a stand-alone movie. Don’t go in (or worse, bring your kids) thinking you’ll all understand what’s going on if you haven’t seen the 2024 film and, perhaps more important, “The Wizard of Oz” from 1939 — or if your recollections of both are vague at best. As much as “For Good” is bogged down with a bonanza of incidents, there’s also a lot happening outside the frame that it assumes you’re easily following.
The major consequence of cleaving “Wicked” in two is that the second part is like a pair of munchkin legs scrambling toward the finish line with only the phantom presence of the heartbeat in its other (and much better) half. The first movie was essentially an effervescent high school comedy that culminated in an Emerald City road trip. It deepened the bond between the green and good witches in a way that surpassed what’s possible onstage. And it left us on a blaring emotional high.
Now, our engagement with the whole gang is meant to carry over from their school days, but the tremendous momentum and feeling generated by part one is tough to regain with a few gossamer flashbacks. Time has passed on-screen and off, and picking up in the middle of each character’s arc is disorienting. Sure, a double screening might help, but unlike the witchy synergy between besties, our time on Earth is not unlimited.
Cast off and maligned, Erivo’s Elphaba is hiding out in an elaborate tree house lair (the Grimms’-on-steroids production design is again by Oscar-winner Nathan Crowley and cinematography by Alice Brooks), plotting to expose the wizard. Under his cruel crusade, the animal citizens of Oz have either been subjugated — some in service of building his signature, gilded vanity project — or forced to flee. (The movie smartly doesn’t force parallels to the present day: They are obvious, and baked into the source material, including Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel and the 2003 stage musical. The ways of tyranny are timeless, apparently.)
Meanwhile, Ariana Grande’s Glinda has been exalted as the face of good: The former friends are now opposing brands, with Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible as the PR grandmaster. The Oscar winner could have taken a cue from fellow baddie Goldblum — and both of their wigs, which grow wackier throughout — and had a lot more fun. She’s a subdued stiff where a flamboyant villain ought to be. Without that, the thrill of vanquishing evil — so key to every version of Oz — is lost.
Despite its packed agenda, the film can also feel meandering and directionless. The most repeated bit of cutesy slang, a comedic device from the first movie only occasionally continued here, is asking for a “clock tick” to register what’s going on. And nearly every character has a gazing-in-the-mirror-to-self-reflect moment, a signal that much of the conflict is internal. (There is one fabulous, hand-to-hand exception.)
The two added songs by Schwartz — Elphaba’s “No Place Like Home,” which earns mewing approval from the critters she’s entreating not to leave Oz, and “The Girl in the Bubble,” in which Glinda wonders whether “it’s time for her bubble to pop” — are pleasant at best, despite their clichés. They feel like necessary filler, written in the style of “Wicked” but without the verve, and they’re far from the sort of Oscar bait packed into the first part.
Though fewer and far between, there are a handful of cinematic flourishes executed in high style, including Elphaba’s thundering lament “No Good Deed” and Glinda’s gorgeous walk down the aisle, “Crazy Rich Asians”-style, interrupted by a wild stampede, hoofs and feathers flying. (Forget Carrie Bradshaw: A new dashed bride-to-be has been crowned supreme.) For anyone already invested in the story, there will be moments of wonder and/or tears at least somewhere along the way.
But as Ozian lore, “For Good” is a companion text — a torn-out chapter that’s necessary reading to reach the end. For those who’ve learned from Dorothy that it’s really about the journey, at least there are other routes to the yellow-brick road.
PG. At area theaters. Contains action/violence, some suggestive material and thematic material (some animals do appear frightened). 138 minutes.
The post Defying gravity no more, ‘Wicked: For Good’ is a letdown
appeared first on Washington Post.
