Paul King builds playful worlds and makes their odd inhabitants good company. We value his warmth and attention to performers, but Wonka exposes the limit of his kindness: a character can become so agreeable that we stop being curious.
Fi1m perspective
In The Mighty Boosh (2004), the scenery can look cheerfully artificial while Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding carry on being funny in front of it. King and fellow director Steve Bendelack give the visual jokes proper attention without losing sight of the performers. Production designers James Dillon and Dennis De Groot supply the playful surroundings; cinematographers Dave Brown and John Simmons keep faces and reactions clear within them. We like King's willingness to make peculiar comedy welcoming, though some routines receive more patience than they deserve. The warmth of the partnership is a better reason to watch than the sheer quantity of strange things on screen.
His feature debut, Bunny and the Bull (2009), was followed by Paddington (2014) and Paddington 2 (2017). The move from surreal television comedy to children's books makes sense: his oddness rarely feels intended to shut anyone out. He co-wrote Paddington 2 with Simon Farnaby, who joined him again on Wonka (2023). By then, the risk was that his fondness for kind characters would leave too little room for difficult ones.
Wonka is where we become less persuaded. Timothée Chalamet plays Willy Wonka with a ready smile, a pleasant singing voice and little suggestion that he might ever do anything cruel. We grew restless watching that smile return, because King gives us no reason to doubt the goodwill behind it. The performance is likeable, but the character has little that might surprise us. King and Farnaby answer the question of how Wonka came by his factory without making a convincing case that it needed answering.
There is still plenty of care in Wonka: it is handsome, easy company, and Hugh Grant provides its most reliable laughs. We would welcome a little less reassurance from King, particularly when the character is Willy Wonka. Start with The Mighty Boosh for the stranger comedy, and approach Wonka expecting a genial family evening rather than much of Dahl's bite.
Biography
Paul King is an English screenwriter and director who works in television, film and theatre, specialising in comedy. He graduated with a first-class honours degree in English from St Catharine's College, Cambridge in 1999. He directed all 20 episodes of the surreal comedy series The Mighty Boosh (2004–2007) and received a British Academy Television Award nomination for Best New Director in 2005.
King directed and co-wrote the family films Paddington (2014) and Paddington 2 (2017). Both earned British Academy Film Award nominations for Best British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. He also directed episodes of Space Force (2020). In 2023 he directed and co-wrote the screenplay for Wonka, with story credit, a prequel exploring the early life of Willy Wonka.
