The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here to see all 50 questions in a nice and organized list. It’s such a pretty list.
TODAY: What male performance ranks as your favorite?
This is one of those questions that come up that I have a difficult time answering. The problem is that I don’t really think of performances in terms of favorites. There are performances that I like and there are performances that I’m not so keen about, but to try and rank them against each other is actually kind of difficult. That’s why I’m going randomly pick between a few performances I enjoy and use them for today’s prompt and tomorrow’s prompt. Today I’m going with Gene Wilder and his performance in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Gene Wilder is pretty much a comedic genius in everything he’s done and I can’t think of a single film that I haven’t enjoyed him in. What makes this one his best is simply that I saw this first. I found myself drawn to how he could go from suave to unhinged with the snap of a finger. For example, there’s a scene in the film where he goes from singing “Pure Imagination” to freaking everyone’s shit on a psychedelic boat ride. It’s perhaps this scene that seals the deal for me.
