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If you have the slightest familiarity with Wicked, you know Jon M. Chu’s film adaptation had to shatter the roof off when it came time to bring Stephen Schwartz’s iconic song, “Defying Gravity,” to the screen. Marketing is supposed to sell you on a film, of course, but every trailer that featured the number in some teasing capacity undersold it—as if hoping not to get expectations up. Yet for some fans, the choice left a sour taste in the mouth due to incomplete visuals and Cynthia Erivo’s voice not being as theatrical as the Ephabas who came before her. Now that the final product is here, though, it is safe to say Wicked the movie does justice to the song, placing it in a cinematic lens that’s cathartic in its own way.
This film version of Wicked depicts Elphaba as an introverted young woman who suppresses the emotional abuse she’s suffered because of her green skin. Erivio’s approach is thoughtful and sensitive, portraying Elphie as a sweet, quietly misunderstood person. Elphie opens up about her wounds in scenes with Glinda (Ariana Grande), especially in the latter half of the movie as they become close friends. But she remains isolated as all other characters dismiss or ostracize Elphaba. Glinda (or Galinda) is the only person she can be honest and confide in. In this new context, it’s even harder not to sympathize with Elphie. I felt like a mother who wanted to shout, “My poor baby!”
With all that internalized low self-esteem and loneliness, one might even briefly hope the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) can make Elphie’s dream of losing her green skin come true. But when she and Glinda meet the Wizard, her objectives quickly change. Elphaba makes a selfless request to free the animals from imprisonment as her one wish. Alas, Elphie soon learns that her only reason for being in the Wizard’s castle is for a test her mentor Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) devised: they want to see if she can cast magic from the impenetrable Grimmerie spellbook.
When she learns the Wizard has no magic, and his and Morrible’s intentions are to use her as a pawn to spread his fascist propaganda rhetoric across the nation and silence animal activists, Elphaba becomes self-actualized. And the film goes to show the extent of Oz’s totalitarian power in a way the stage cannot. Fans of the Broadway show are familiar with this dark turn, but it is a rattling display onscreen. Chu and company craft an intense and frightful action sequence where Gilda and Elphaba attempt to escape from the Emerald City guards and the flying monkeys that Elphaba was tricked into creating.
All the emotional stirring tension throughout the film firmly places you in Elphaba’s shoes by this moment. You can tell that Elphaba and Glinda’s friendship has shifted. Elphie realizes that she only has herself to look up to after her world’s been shattered while Glinda tries convincing her to surrender to the authorities out of fear.
By the time “Defying Gravity” commences, the impact of your emotional attachment toward Elphaba is stronger. To see Elphaba pace around the tower’s highest room during her number, coming to her sense of power, while Erivo powerfully sings Schwartz’s soulful tunes, sends chills.
Writers Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox take bold creative liberties to render the number in cinematic form. In the fateful moment where Elphaba jumps from the tower, she initially falls, even seeing herself as a kid in the reflection of the tower’s glass as she tumbles long after what was supposed to be the beginning of her high note on stage. In that moment, the suppression of her power and herself, which she’s carried forever as a way to protect that young girl within from hatreds and bigotries, is finally released.
After she reaches out to her reflection and finally accepts herself, the film cuts back to her reality, and her broom is in her hand. It’s a striking display that only the power of movies can evoke. a visual cue that stylishly goes beyond its source material and grips you to the soul.
Only after this palpable delay of the song’s first crescendo, which the movie’s score has set anticipation for, does Elphie sing, “When you find me, look to the western sky!” And in that moment, she is facing down those who tried to oppress her. She liberates herself and the audience from their menace.
It also helps that Wicked doesn’t falter in handling the racial prejudice themes stemming from Gregory Maguire’s novel. Anyone who has ever faced racism can deeply connect with every note Erivo delivers in his moment. The film’s magical attention to character, even at the most pivotal moment within the story, truly makes the number come alive, rendering it a worthy reinterpretation that other stage-to-screen adaptations should take note of.
Wicked is playing in theaters now.
The post The Wicked Movie Dramatically Improves on ‘Defying Gravity’ appeared first on Den of Geek.
