IN THAT AT ONCE TEDIOUS and unsettling film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bill the candyman chastises a buck-toothed child who asks him how Wonka does it. “My dear boy, do you ask a fish how it swims?” he replies. It is a shallow answer, which sets the tone for the rest of the film. We ought to eat chocolate infrequently but we should always ask why — why things are as they are and why it is that people do what they do.
Malachy Tallack’s is a bold and
