Film Review | ‘Wicked’ is a Wonderfully Entertaining Journey to Oz

I walked in feeling cautiously optimistic about Wicked and walked out feeling pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the film version of the Broadway musical. 

I’ve been burned before. As someone who adores musicals and The Wizard of Oz, I couldn’t wait to see the film version of Wicked, but I was also nervous. I found Spielberg’s film version of West Side Story even more disappointing than the movie versions of Dear Evan Hansen and Hamilton, though all were live shows that I loved. But Wicked — directed by Jon M. Chu (who crushed Crazy Rich Asians and did a pretty good job on In the Heights) and starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo — did a pretty impressive job of, if not exactly defying gravity, rising to some pretty stellar cinematic heights. 

Visually stunning, Wicked uses every inch of the big screen canvas to tell Gregory Maguire’s imaginative back story (the book is worth reading too) of what happened before The Wizard of Oz film. Set in the Land of Oz before Dorothy Gale’s arrival from Kansas, Wicked follows Elphaba (Erivo) as she begins her journey to becoming the Wicked Witch of the West, and spends most of the film chronicling her friendship with her classmate Galinda (Grande) who eventually becomes Glinda the Good Witch. 

Although Erivo, at age 37, is arguably a bit old to play a college student, the strength and vulnerability she conveys through her green makeup take a film that could have easily been mostly fluff into a level of emotional depth that left me teary in several moments. Grande, using her exterior fluffiness to full-on charming and comedic advantage, also brings some surprising acting skills to her role as Galinda. And both women bring powerhouse vocal chops to the big screen with an excellent song set by Stephen Schwartz. Like their characters, they’re better together in every way.

The film soundtrack, which only encompasses part one of two of the Broadway show, debuted at the #2 spot on the Billboard 200 chart, the highest debut for a big-screen adaptation of a stage musical ever. It also took the top spot on Billboard’s Top Album Sales, Soundtracks, and Vinyl Albums charts. While “Popular” was one of the showstoppers in the theater, I found “What Is This Feeling,” “Dancing Through Life” (sung primarily by Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey), “I’m Not That Girl,” and “Defying Gravity” to be the standouts in the film. But honestly, all of the music is good and easy to sing along with, just like it was in the stage show.   

With big songs like “Wonderful,” “As Long As You’re Mine,” and “For Good” in the second act of the show — so presumably in part two of the film, coming in 2025 — I’m cautiously optimistic that Wicked Part Two will be solidly up to the heights that Part One has risen to. 

Meanwhile, I can’t wait for the singalong version to hit Santa Barbara.