It’s been nearly a full year since Wicked ended with Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) escaping Oz and Glinda the Good (Ariana Grande) deciding to stay behind, or as Wicked: For Good tells us, “It’s been 12 tide turns since the Wicked Witch escaped with the Grimmerie.” In Elphaba’s absence, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) carefully manipulated public perception to turn all of Oz against “The Wicked Witch of the West” and lift Glinda up as a figurehead the citizens can blindly follow, while the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) works on his tyrannical reign in the background.
Glinda, for her part, allows herself to become Morrible’s puppet, resulting in her dreams coming true—or at least what she thought were her dreams. She has no real magic, but the wizard has carefully crafted her life to appear magical (the scene with Glinda receiving her floating bubble — or the “vehicular spherical globule” — is everything, offering one of the film’s rare moments of Glinda’s joy), she has a “swankified” pink apartment in downtown Emerald City, the love of the people, and a new fiancé, Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), because a royal wedding is exactly what the people need to distract them from the Wizard’s new decrees.
Glinda’s ambivalence between getting all she ever dreamed of at the cost of losing her best friend and knowing the truth about the Wizard is what makes the second half of Wicked perfectly fit for a screen adaptation. Director Jon M. Chu and cinematographer Alice Brooks use the camera to show the audience these small moments we don’t get with the stage play. While I fear the first act of Wicked is best on stage, the second half seems to have always been destined to be on screen.
Wicked: For Good is largely Glinda’s redemption arc, and Grande’s sincerity and authenticity will make you fall even more in love with the future Good Witch of the North (and if she doesn’t, young Glinda is sure to steal your heart). One of the best scenes in the film is accompanied by a new song called “The Girl in the Bubble,” where Brooks’s excellent cinematography pairs with symbolic lyrics and, of course, Grande’s impeccable vocals to create one of the most meaningful musical numbers in either installment.
While Grande largely steals the show, Erivo makes the most of her material, particularly shining in scenes of Elphaba and Glinda together. Still, Elphaba’s arc feels underdeveloped. She’s saddled with some of the film’s weaker material (yes, that cheesy line at the end of “As Long As You’re Mine” made the cut — and it somehow lands even worse on screen). Chu also seems oddly committed to showcasing every possible variation of Elphaba riding a broom, undercutting otherwise serious moments with gimmickry. Most notably, her relationship with Fiyero isn’t given the room to grow, leaving their eventual conclusion feeling unearned.
The second act of the stage play is often criticized for its lack of power ballads and grandeur. But the film addresses many of these issues and improves upon its source material by adding more songs by John Powell and Stephen Schwartz (who also composed the musical) and bringing depth to the story through more small moments of character development. Chu and his team have also incorporated more nods to The Wizard of Oz, helping the 1939 film feel like a seamless third chapter in the series. Wicked: For Good is the perfect ending to this story, enriching both Wicked: Part 1 and The Wizard of Oz.
