I must admit, I wasn't sure what I was getting into when this film arrived at my doorstep. With pensiveness in my eyes, I placed the DVD into my player and watched
surprisingly
a play unfold before my eyes. I knew it was a play, but I didn't realize this was nothing more than the stage version placed in DVD format. With no special features, I dived directly into the action. Song after song, joke after joke, familiar story line crossed with unfamiliar stories, I patiently waited to explore the finale of this extremely creative play. With an hour and a half down, I thought the film was over. I didn't see what the excitement was about, it was creative, but not shockingly bold
then the second act began and my jaw dropped. Darkness finally crept into these fairy tales and opened a fresh new door for our dated characters to explore.
I must give tons of credit to Stephen Sondheim's creative mind. Without his ability to dive deeper within a story than imaginable, I do not think there would have been much desire for me to sit through this three-hour epic. Thankfully, Sondheim has this ability to constantly keep you guessing. There were not many scenes in this performance that seemed stale, or overused. There were clean and creative moments that kept you guessing until the very end. I kept my eyes glued to the screen because I never knew which direction Sondheim was going to take next. Was he going to follow classic form, or branch away into a powerful new area that has yet to be explored? Thankfully, he broke away and created a story that set in motion the several thousands of other fairy tale rediscoveries.
Coupled with Sondheim's powerful penmanship, we also have James Lapine's amazing direction. With a film like this, basically taking a live-performance and releasing it on DVD, there was that opportunity to go extremely stale and find yourself watching what looks like a "high school" parent's videotaped production. This version has extremely crisp editing, you can see the actors, you can hear what they are saying, and it feels as if you are right on the front row watching these powerful performances unfold in front of you. Lapine does an excellent job with his positions of the cameras and ability to focus on exactly whom we need to be watching. He keeps us centered on the story and characters without constantly reminding us that it is a play. He does a great job of taking us into the story, away from the stage, and giving us life away from the theater. If you force yourself to accept that it is only a play, than you will see the stage, the stagehands, and everything else that follows live theater, but if you get swept away into the songs, characters, and story, as I did, then you will see a fairy tale unfold in front of you.
While I did enjoy the quality of the DVD and the creativity of Stephen Sondheim, there were some elements that I just could not escape. One happened to be the songs. While I loved the opening songs of the first act, in fact finding myself tapping my toes to several of the melodies, the second act felt as if I was listening to the same songs over and over again. The second act became repetitious to me. The songs, as well as the length, just seemed to be a bit overwhelming. I found my mind wandering, when I wanted to focus on what was happening on screen. I think this is because of the different versions of the SAME song coupled with elongated speeches. This may sound weird, but I loved the second act. It was dark, spooky, and showed a new side to fairy tales that we had not been accustomed to exploring. Yet, I hated the second act as well. It just seemed to drag on and on without a true direction in sight. I understood what needed to happen, but it just didn't feel as crisp as the opening act. The characters seemed a bit stale, the surroundings seemed a bit boring, and I just felt as if it had lost some of the creative genius that I witnessed in the opening act. While I hate to blame anyone (especially after the lesson learned in this film), but there was too much focus on Bernadette Peters, who was the obvious star of the play. This was an ensemble performance and needed to be treated as such. The second act focused a bit too much on Peters' Witch characters while it needed to explore everyone's emotions equally. Outside of these two issues, I felt this was a fun, fantastical film that introduced me into a new chapter of fairy tales.
Overall, I was impressed. I really desire to see the play now, but don't know if I can sit through another 2.5 hour performance. It was great, but not worthy of another viewing. While I loved the creativity and the DVD transfer, I felt that the second act of this play was a bit sloppy. It needed to be tightened, strengthened around the darkness of the characters, and everyone brought together as a group, instead of individually. The ending smelled a bit cheesy, but allowed for all resolutions to be solved. There is so much that I loved about the second act (like the darkness and the chaos surrounding indestructible storybook characters), but there were equally the same amount of dislikes that spawned from the second act. Good, but not great, powerful, yet didn't seem to drive that nail home. Applauding Sondheim and Lapine, penalizing Peters and the uncreative repetitions of the songs.
Grade: *** out of *****
I must give tons of credit to Stephen Sondheim's creative mind. Without his ability to dive deeper within a story than imaginable, I do not think there would have been much desire for me to sit through this three-hour epic. Thankfully, Sondheim has this ability to constantly keep you guessing. There were not many scenes in this performance that seemed stale, or overused. There were clean and creative moments that kept you guessing until the very end. I kept my eyes glued to the screen because I never knew which direction Sondheim was going to take next. Was he going to follow classic form, or branch away into a powerful new area that has yet to be explored? Thankfully, he broke away and created a story that set in motion the several thousands of other fairy tale rediscoveries.
Coupled with Sondheim's powerful penmanship, we also have James Lapine's amazing direction. With a film like this, basically taking a live-performance and releasing it on DVD, there was that opportunity to go extremely stale and find yourself watching what looks like a "high school" parent's videotaped production. This version has extremely crisp editing, you can see the actors, you can hear what they are saying, and it feels as if you are right on the front row watching these powerful performances unfold in front of you. Lapine does an excellent job with his positions of the cameras and ability to focus on exactly whom we need to be watching. He keeps us centered on the story and characters without constantly reminding us that it is a play. He does a great job of taking us into the story, away from the stage, and giving us life away from the theater. If you force yourself to accept that it is only a play, than you will see the stage, the stagehands, and everything else that follows live theater, but if you get swept away into the songs, characters, and story, as I did, then you will see a fairy tale unfold in front of you.
While I did enjoy the quality of the DVD and the creativity of Stephen Sondheim, there were some elements that I just could not escape. One happened to be the songs. While I loved the opening songs of the first act, in fact finding myself tapping my toes to several of the melodies, the second act felt as if I was listening to the same songs over and over again. The second act became repetitious to me. The songs, as well as the length, just seemed to be a bit overwhelming. I found my mind wandering, when I wanted to focus on what was happening on screen. I think this is because of the different versions of the SAME song coupled with elongated speeches. This may sound weird, but I loved the second act. It was dark, spooky, and showed a new side to fairy tales that we had not been accustomed to exploring. Yet, I hated the second act as well. It just seemed to drag on and on without a true direction in sight. I understood what needed to happen, but it just didn't feel as crisp as the opening act. The characters seemed a bit stale, the surroundings seemed a bit boring, and I just felt as if it had lost some of the creative genius that I witnessed in the opening act. While I hate to blame anyone (especially after the lesson learned in this film), but there was too much focus on Bernadette Peters, who was the obvious star of the play. This was an ensemble performance and needed to be treated as such. The second act focused a bit too much on Peters' Witch characters while it needed to explore everyone's emotions equally. Outside of these two issues, I felt this was a fun, fantastical film that introduced me into a new chapter of fairy tales.
Overall, I was impressed. I really desire to see the play now, but don't know if I can sit through another 2.5 hour performance. It was great, but not worthy of another viewing. While I loved the creativity and the DVD transfer, I felt that the second act of this play was a bit sloppy. It needed to be tightened, strengthened around the darkness of the characters, and everyone brought together as a group, instead of individually. The ending smelled a bit cheesy, but allowed for all resolutions to be solved. There is so much that I loved about the second act (like the darkness and the chaos surrounding indestructible storybook characters), but there were equally the same amount of dislikes that spawned from the second act. Good, but not great, powerful, yet didn't seem to drive that nail home. Applauding Sondheim and Lapine, penalizing Peters and the uncreative repetitions of the songs.
Grade: *** out of *****