• Directed by Jon M. Chu, “Wicked” is a film adaptation of the iconic musical – well, just one.

• Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s individual performances and chemistry carry the film.

• While it can get bogged down on its own, for the most part, “Wicked” earns its lengthy running time.

“Wicked” is verbose, indulgent and a few minutes too long. It’s also extraordinarily, rivetingly good.

Directed by Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”) and starring the biggest legends of Broadway and pop music – Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, respectively – “Wicked” is a stunning adaptation. The stage musical version is also an adaptation, the looser kind, of Gregory Maguire’s novel of the same name. In 1995, the Wicked Witch of the West was turned into a tragic heroine named Elphaba.

If the novel reinterpreted the “Oz” canon, outlining what happened years before Dorothy’s house fell from the sky, and the stage musical transforming it into something new, Chu’s musical film also makes it feel new.

The film follows the same beats as the musical’s first act: Elphaba, a young woman who grew up marginalized because of the green color of her skin, enrolls in Shiz University because of her miraculous, natural magical ability. She stays with future Good Witch Glinda and uncovers a conspiracy that threatens some of Oz’s most vulnerable. However, challenging it turns her into a villain in the eyes of the people.

Chu and Wicked’s screenwriters Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox benefit from the relative freedom of time and resources of a blockbuster. While the film’s running time seems absurd on paper (it runs at two hours and 41 minutes and only manages to tackle the first act of the Broadway production) it would be easier to call “Wicked” bloated as the most extensive choices were not directly in the interest of the film. central relationship: that of Elphaba and Glinda.

We see brief flashes of playful, snarky dialogue and lengthy sequences, punctuated by musical numbers, that capture every beat of their evolving relationship.

‘Wicked’ focuses on Elphaba and Glinda. Erivo and Grande’s chemistry sells it.

For the most part, “Wicked” doesn’t get too heavy on dialogue and relies on the musical numbers to move the story along. When it decides to expand these figures, it’s usually for a good reason.

Those interjections range from a sly extra two bars to sync up the lyrics to turning already long songs like “Dancing Through Life” into extended turning points in Elphaba and Glinda’s friendship.

Just like in the musical, Glinda Elphaba borrows the ugliest hat from her closet for a party. Upon arrival she is ridiculed, but after she starts dancing alone, Glinda joins her and the two become friends. “Wicked” takes its time with that dance sequence – and in turn gives it the narrative weight it deserves.

That relationship wouldn’t work without the individual performances of Erivo and Grande. Grande disappears into Glinda, and only a few times can you hear a well-earned vocal style reminiscent of her personal discography. Vocally, she soars, delivering songs like “Popular” with dazzling aplomb.

However, her performance is best reflected in her comedic sensibilities. She riffs off Erivo with ease, Jonathan Bailey, who plays a Winkie prince the two meet at school, or her classmate sycophants, played by Bowen Yang and Bronwyn James. This should be enough to earn her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress contender.

Erivo delivers the film’s grounding performance, and she captures the vulnerability, naivete, and girlishness beneath her character’s bristling exterior. When you finally hear her sing on ‘The Wizard and I’ – the film’s standout song – it’s far enough that you to wait before it. Erivo, of course, crushes it, tapping into Elphaba’s deep sense of joy and curiosity as she fantasizes about the sorcerer who cures her social exclusion.

The Only Problem With ‘Wicked’

It’s clear that both actors, thanks to their ineffable on-screen chemistry, are having the time of their lives in these roles – and so is the rest of the production. If there’s one crime “Wicked” commits, it might be that it loves itself and its source material a little too much.

The film goes out of its way to pay homage to the original musical, including an extremely euphoric cameo that is best left unspoiled for true “Wicked” enthusiasts. In other cases, such as the score’s repeated invocation of the “For Good” theme from Act Two, it can feel too self-referential.

“Wicked” also starts to get bogged down in its tone-changing endgame. Most egregiously, it crushes his momentum during “Defying Gravity,” in which Elphaba, now an enemy of the state after refusing to conspire with the Wizard, successfully obtains the power of flight to escape.

Instead of letting Erivo’s extraordinary vocal performance and the music drive the film’s climax, “Wicked” bogs down Elphaba’s rise with too many short action scenes, dialogue exchanges and extra musical interludes. By the end of the film – and while waiting for Erivo’s final notes – it’s too much.

But ultimately, “Wicked” is one of the best musical adaptations to hit the screen recently. Chu delivers his vision of Oz with clear passion and verve, making story decisions that successfully argue why this had to be a two-part film.

At the very least, I won’t complain about getting another two (or more) hours like this.

“Wicked,” also starring Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum, opens in theaters Friday.

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