MOVI ES
BY MO LLY TEMP LETO N
OZ THE DULL AND
TERRIBLE
Sam Raimi’s Oz is a missed
opportunity, and no amount of
glittering CGI can save it
OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL:
Directed by Sam Raimi.
Screenplay by Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire. Cinematography,
Peter Deming. Editor, Bob Murawski. Music, Danny Elfman. Starring
James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff
and Joey King. Disney, 2013. PG. 130 minutes. 02111
O
nce upon a time, I was an Oz purist. Not for the
1939 movie, though I liked it well enough, but
for L. Frank Baum’s books, which I read until
they were ragged. The first time I saw the cover
of Wicked, Gregory Maguire’s novel about the
Wicked Witch of the West, I stopped dead, thinking: One
does not do that to Oz.
In fact, one does do that to Oz, if by “that” you mean
envision the witch as Maguire does, as a singular,
conflicted, astonishing creature. What one really does not
do to Oz is transform it into the insipid, insulting Oz the
Great and Powerful.
To figure out just what went so terribly awry with Sam
Raimi’s new film, start with producer Joe Roth, so proudly
billed as the producer of Tim Burton’s limp Alice in
Wonderland. Roth’s list of credits also includes Snow
White and the Huntsman, which reworked the central
stepmother/daughter, beauty/age conflict in order to let the
Huntsman share top billing.
Roth and Raimi’s screenwriters, Mitchell Kapner and
David Lindsay-Abaire, work a similar retro spell here.
This isn’t the Oz you remember, where a young girl
uncovers a wizard’s charade and finds her way home with
the help of a powerful witch. This is the Oz of men who
thought today’s cinematic landscape was lacking male
leads.
And thus, our reluctant hero is Oscar Diggs (a tiresome
James Franco), the con man known as Oz, who dreams of
being a great man like Thomas Edison. Oz doesn’t do
much work toward that dream; mostly he uses his tricks to
earn a few coins — and the affections of various women.
On the run from an angry strongman, Oz is picked up by a
twister that deposits him on the far side of the Technicolor
rainbow, in a land where the only magic is of the green-
screen sort.
It turns out Oz has been waiting for him, thanks to a
prophesy from the land’s last king (only men rule here;
sorry, Ozma!). “Are you the great man we’ve been waiting
for?” asks sweet witch Theodora (Mila Kunis) breathlessly.
Theodora’s sister, Evanora (Rachel Weisz), is more
skeptical, and requires that the wizard prove himself,
3/21
THU
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while Glinda (Michelle Williams) puts her considerable
skills to use convincing Oz that he’s just what her people
need, if he’ll just believe in himself.
For a very brief time, I imagined Oz was taking the
piss, telling a sly cautionary tale about the dangers of
teaching women to wait around for men to save them. No
such luck. Oz the Great and Powerful transforms the bones
of L. Frank Baum’s feminist fairytales into a slog of a
story about the redemption of a smug, dull con man; the
ugly wrath of a woman scorned; and the terrible things that
will happen if you are female, angry, old and/or brunette.
There are brilliant, vibrant Oz stories that have yet to be
told on film — the ones featuring Ozma, Dorothy and
General Jinjur, to name a few. But those have girls in them
— independent, plucky, spirited girls who will just go out
and save the day themselves. The argument’s been made
that the witches still have the power in Raimi’s Oz, but
that’s not the point; the point is that they use it doing
nothing but propping up a cad with a soft spot for delicate
blondes. Predictable, burdened with unfunny dialogue and
stilted performances, and insulting to its audience and its
source material, this Oz is anything but great. ■
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