Film Review: Into the Woods
0
0
Read Time:3 Minute, 48 Second
When those familiar chords of Sondheim’s Into the Woods began to play, I have to admit that I got extremely nervous, more than I would let on to my screening buddy. How would they manage to balance the various tones of the piece? Would they butcher the score?
Luckily for me, and most audiences, the movie manages to not be the mess it could have easily turned into. While Into the Woods does have some legitimate problems, I found the movie to be entertaining and a good translation from stage to screen.
For those completely unfamiliar with Into the Woods, you’d only need to look to your favorite Disney films or childhood fairytales to gain a bit of understanding, for this musical is a reimaginging of those famous tales. The plot follows a group of people who must venture into the woods (get it?) in order to achieve their wish, this includes a Baker and his Wife (James Corden and Emily Blunt) who long for a child, a young maiden who dreams of meeting a Prince (Anna Kendrick), a boy who loves his cow (Daniel Huttlestone), a little girl with cape of red (Lilia Crawford) and a Witch (Meryl Streep). These characters interact in the woods and run into toher fairytale characters such as Rapunzel, Cinderella’s Prince and others on their way to their to their happy endings. Or so it seems as a giant attacks the kingdom and the group of fairytale characters learn that wishes come true not free.
Now what of the mechanics of the film? Well I should probably let you know right off the bat that all of those worries of Disney watering down the prickly moments in the music are misplaced. The script is very faithful to the dark themes of the stage musical and though Rob Marshall and James Lapine don’t show everything on screen, they aren’t afraid to let the subtext come to the fore. The movie also does an admirable job of balancing the many competing tones, as Into the Woods veers from slapstick comedy to heartfelt drama at a heartbeat. You can look at the build up and execution to Agony, which is the highlight of the film, or the dazzling inventivness in staging a number like On the Steps of the Palace, and see the creativity behind making sure this worked as a film. However, Into the Woods is almost undone several times by big issues, only to be saved by the cast, which I’ll discuss in a bit. As someone who is familiar with the stage show, I can pinpoint exactly where Act I ends, which wouldn’t be a problem if it didn’t feel as though the first hour and a half of this 2 hour film felt like one long prologue/Act I, with a second act that feels rushed. While I understand the importance of setting up the situation, the movie takes a long time to get going and with the 2nd act feeling so short, much of the power of the characters decisions and the ramifications of them plays out too quickly, as opposed to the first half where the peieces are being allowed to settle. This led to watching the film being a bit uneven for me and honestly a bit disappointing during the final moments because I was robbed a bit of something interesting.
The cast is probably what is going to get many of the moviegoers into the theater and for the most part the actors handle what is a pretty difficult score to sing (the first half is in iambic pentameter). I think that everyone is game and many deliver exactly what you expect them to like Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt and James Corden, who are much needed solid anchors for this film. Of the cast, I truly didn’t care for Johnny Depp (who still can’t really sing and thankfully is only in the film for about 10 mins) and in a shocking turn of events, Meryl Streep, whose Witch I found more distracting than ingrossing. This is perhaps because of the way many of her numbers were shot (I rolled my eyes so much during Last Midnight) but Meryl didn’t really do much for the tale and much of the gravitas she’s brought to other films isn’t really here. Luckily, the supporting actor triumverate of Billy Magnussen (Rapunzel’s Prince), Lilia Crawford (Little Red Riding Hood) and especially Chris Pine (Cinderella’s Prince) are featured enough throughout the piece to give the musical the jolt it needs when things might slow down.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %