Once upon a time…
I was a girl of 15 sitting in the middle of a stage when I was being told “a musical only works when the audience can’t tell when you’re singing or when you’re talking.” That was 1994 and our play production class was gearing up to put on a production of “Into the Woods,” a fairy tale themed musical with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (West Side Story, Company, Follies, Gypsy and way more!) and book by James Lapine (Tony award winner for the Into The Woods book). It was my very first musical theater experience and I fell in love. When Disney announced Into the Woods going into the production, I squealed (cause YAY!!) and then I winced (cause, well, adaptations can go awry). To say I have been anticipating a chance to screen this film is an understatement. I headed to the screening at the Samuel Goldwyn theater in Beverly Hills- you know where the Oscar nominees are announced…yup! I crossed my fingers and held my breath as I hoped the film would be every inch as spectacular as I was hoping for.
The film opens the same way as the theater number, with the cast of characters each singing things that they are wishing for. Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) wishes to go to the festival while her cruel and wicked stepmother (Christine Baranski) taunts her by letting her know if she picks the pot full of lentils from the ashes and done her chores, she can go with her and her wicked stepsisters to the King’s festival. When she shows her stepmother all is done, the stepmonster then tells her she can’t go looking as she does, and then leaves without her. So Cinderella concludes to visit her mother’s grave to ask for help.
Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) and his mother (Tracy Ullman) are poor and need money for food. So Jack’s mother decides to send Jack to market to sell his cow, Milky White, who hasn’t given any milk for weeks. The cow is his only friend but his mom won’t hear of it, and tells him not to accept any less than 5 pounds for her, and off Jack is into the woods.
Meanwhile, Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford) is asking for sweets and breads from the childless Baker (James Corden) and the Baker’s Wife (Emily Blunt) to take to her granny in the woods, to which they oblige and she leaves for her journey through the woods. Shortly after, they are visited from the witch (Meryl Streep) who lives next door. She lets them know that during the course of his mother’s pregnancy with his sister, who the which abducted, his father stole magic beans from her garden and she placed a spell over their family tree that it will always be a barren one. There is one hope to break the spell and that is to find a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold and bring them to her before the 3rd blue moon. To do so, they must go to the wood.
It is a collision course in the woods in which the Baker buys Jack’s cow with magic beans, Baker’s wife encounters Cinderella, who is running from the Prince (Chris Pine), Little Red crossed paths with the Big Bad Wolf (Johnny Depp in a creepy cameo), and we find Rapunzel trapped in a tower being romanced by another prince, despite all the cautions her mother, aka the witch, has warned her about. Slowly but surely, everyone gets what they had been wishing for, but sometimes the things you wish for, are not to be touched.
But then again, sometimes what you wish for ends up becoming one of the best things you have ever seen on the big screen. Though I have a few quips over changes from the stage to the film (a song between the Baker and his father was removed, the pace of one of the intense songs was wayyy slowed down, and a certain semi-main character’s death didn’t happen), overall this adaptation was spectacular. Vocally, it does Broadway every bit of justice while still making it it’s own version. The big surprises were Emily Blunt, who not only pulls off great vocals but can bring a whole new life into the numbers by how she can portray the emotions in them. Plus her pairing with James Corden… LOVE. If I knew what shipping meant, I would ship them. Also, Chris Pine- wow! Now, I have seen this particular song and character many times, and it can easily be dislikeable, but Agony was one of the best numbers in the movie. Meryl Streep brings a whole new layer to Stay with Me and man, can she sing. I mean really, is there anything she can’t do?
On the parental front, I dunno. I heard a few people saying this isn’t good for kids but I have to say I highly disagree. Fairy tales have been told to young kids for centuries, and in a way, this is a very cleaned up version. The Wolf is meant to make kids feel uncomfortable, and certain things are meant to be sad and scary. The world is not a perfect place, but at least through this film, there is entertainment and a gorgeous introduction to the world of musical theater. If anything, it’ll be a conversation starter after the film. I would say this is good for children 6 and up, I know my 7 year 0ld is super antsy to watch it.
I give it a huge thumbs up. Into the Woods opens Christmas Day and is Rated PG.
This sounds like a great movie! I’ve read three reviews and each one makes me want to see the movie more. I’ve actually never seen the play or read the book but I would love to.
I love your passion for this film!!
I avoided reading any reviews before seeing this film, so I’d have no expectations or prejudices. And in the opening moments, I thought I’d been rewarded. This was clearly nothing typical from Hollywood. The characters in period dress, singing their dialog, and the surprise of seeing Tracey Uhlman! I was delighted to see her attached to this project. It bode well! The camera focused on the actors, and not the CGI. Since I knew nothing of the story, I wondered if it would be another LES MISERABLES. But as it unfolded, the “sing-song” lyrics that I hoped would evolve into grand musical numbers got a bit tiresome, and a slow leak began to hiss from my enthusiasm. It needed more…something. OK, so we’ve been introduced to childhood fairy tale themes, and maybe they’re going to weave them together somehow. Well they attempted to, but not in an imaginative way. Merle Streep as the witch. I thought there might have been a dash of Margaret Hamilton in her initial appearance, but no…Streep was taking it elsewhere. The first glimmer of genuine music came with Johnny Depp as The Big Bad Wolf. Cheesy makeup, but I can overlook that, the scene still works. I thought Chris Pine as the Prince was the stand-out performance. My guess is that this characterization is what the screenwriters had in mind for the entire project…funny, hammy, over the top, but enjoyable. And consistent. But the other characters, with their occasional surprisingly bad dialog, never attained it. Streep’s performance became irritating. The other characters bounced between light comedy and out-of-place drama. I gave up any hope of this being an actual musical, and over half-way through, the sing-songy dialog ceased all together, for no apparent reason. It was like the assistant director took over while the big guy went to lunch. Eventually, we the audience stumbled out of a forest of confusion, and see what looks like the end of the story. I resisted looking at my watch the whole time, and thought, well that wasn’t bad, but…wrong. The story plunged back into an irritating forest of heavy-handed seriousness, with thorns of what again attempted to be musical dialog. I had had enough. This could have been spin on the PRINCESS BRIDE, but it got LOST (somewhere) IN TRANSLATION. On the plus side, I was impressed that this thing got the green light from an industry that loves formulaic stories that at least promise to get production costs back. I hope they will with this one. Thirty minutes too long, and btw…Stephen Sondheim? Really?