Into the Woods

I love Stephen Sondheim's musical classic Into The Woods, so I was more than excited to see Rob Marshall's new motion picture adaptation. Not only is Into The Woods one of my favorite musicals, but Rob Marshall was the director who brought Kander & Ebb's Chicago to the big screen in 2002 – an effort which resulted in the first musical to win the Best Picture Oscar since 1968! In fact, since Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge update in 2001, several major musicals have been successfully adapted to the big screen – including Chicago, Dreamgirls, and the unfairly criticized Les Miserables just two years ago.

I hate to say it, but Into The Woods does not fall into this category. I found the film dreary, draggy, and quite frankly, boring. How can this be? It's the same dialogue, the same music, the same set, and the same costumes as we see on stage. But therein lay the problem. On stage, set designers create "the woods," and the actors move in and out of these woods. We use our imagination to pretend the woods are larger than what we see on stage. Here, the woods are huge. After all, these are the movies. Unfortunately, the woods all look the same. Marshall may as well have filmed a stage performance. Furthermore, the sky is always cloudy, giving the picture a dirty, dingy feel.

Into these woods, several classic stories interconnect, including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack & The Beanstalk, and Rapunzel. Tying all the stories together is the story of a baker and his wife, who are unable to conceive a child due to a curse placed on them by the witch who lives next door. On stage, characters from the various fairy tales bump into one another in hilarious fashion, and eventually all the loose ends are wrapped up and most of the characters live happily ever after.

But the film has one major flaw, and that is that the loose ends are tied up too soon. The sun finally shines on Cinderella's wedding day, as all the townsfolk join the celebration. I looked at my watch and realized we were only an hour Into The Woods, causing me to wonder what director Rob Marshall was going to do with the rest of the movie. On stage, Cinderella's wedding is merely a formality – a necessary conclusion to the story we all know, but certainly not the end of the musical. Here, Marshall gives the wedding scene such heft – and differentiates it from the previous hour's worth of material – that we feel like it's time to get up and leave.

At this point, the film version goes awry. The players begin behaving out of character for reasons never explained. For instance, how could the handsome prince consider Cinderella the love of his life one day, and then cheat on her the next? Why does Jack's mother die? (Her death is one of the funniest scenes on stage. Here, it happens so quickly, I wasn't even sure if she had died or not. And Jack's demeanor doesn't change one iota.) Another problem is Stephen Sondheim himself. You see, Sondheim is a lyricist. When he wrote the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, the result was one of the best stage and screen musicals of all time. But when Sondheim writes his own melodies, the result is often wordy, tuneless ditties you won't remember two minutes after leaving the theatre. Again, on stage this is no big deal. In fact, it almost accentuates the material to feature the characters speaking and singing in similar speech patterns. But on screen, I had that, "Not another song!" feeling all through the third act – the way I did with Barbra Streisand's Yentl back in 1983.

I certainly can't knock the performances, although Anna Kendrick's remarkable turn as Cinderella is the only one that stands out from the rest. Her character seems genuine, and she gives Cinderella a few new dimensions, rather than simply fulfilling the role we think we know from the fairy tale. Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep has been nominated for another Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as the witch. She's fine, but she won't win. I could name at least a dozen Streep performances better than this one.

It's a disappointment to me that Into The Woods didn't adapt better to the big screen. That makes three films this season that I really wanted to like, and was disappointed at the outcome – Birdman, Inherent Vice, and now Into The Woods. Throughout the course of motion picture history, it often seems as though the best musicals are those written directly for the screen, such as Singin' In The Rain or Mary Poppins. Adapting material from another source is always risky. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. As I've thought more about Into The Woods, I wonder if this isn't one of those musicals that simply wasn't meant to adapt to the screen. Remember Richard Attenborough's inexcusable A Chorus Line? That's another great, intimate show that simply doesn't work on the large easel of the motion picture screen. I fear that's what we have here with Into The Woods.

Half the hate reviews I'm seeing on this website are all saying "The trailers didn't announce that it was a musical". 1. The music in the trailer is the character's singing voices! Please pick up on that! 2. Yes, it is a musical. I really don't see how a movie can get so much hate just because they didn't know it was a musical! At least try to appreciate the music in it instead of just hating it because you don't like actual singing. 3. THIS WAS ORIGINALLY BASED ON A STAGE PLAY BACK IN THE 80'S, OF COURSE IT IS GOING TO BE FREAKING LONG! Honestly the people act as if they've never sat through a 2 hour movie before! Schindler's List was over 3 hours and that is a freaking masterpiece, but god forbid a musical being just over two hours. 4. If you came in to just see Johnny Depp: Stop being so stupid and be warned he's only in the movie for 5 minutes. 5. IT'S PG-13! It warns you that some scenes will frighten young children. However if you think that the movie version is disturbing then don't take your kids to the stage play!

In my opinion. I loved this version just as much as the stage play. I have high hopes for Lilla Crawford and that she gets more roles in other movies. Her voice was phenomenal and Stephen Sondheim's musicals are a bit of a challenge to play in. So my respects to her. Anna Kendrick's voice was amazing, and she played a brilliant Cinderella. Meryl Streep is brilliant as always. Emily Blunt had a hidden talent I wasn't aware of. The two men (forgot the names sorry) who played the two prince's had great voices too! I could go through the cast and break down on their talent, but I think I'd go over the 1, 000 word count.

But please be warned, this is a musical. I believe it is a great musical and I really want others to give it a chance. It sucks that that the rating is 6.6 and I'm afraid it will get lower :(

10/10

A wonderful cast indeed, and a number of popular fairy tales entwined, but I couldn't help feeling that I was watching a stage play instead of a movie. At times it felt the film was moving in circles, with a sense of deja vu more often than not. I also found the singing just a tad too much, and too drawn out at times. All in all it was a good production, I suppose, but this is an acquired taste, and it just did not tickle my palate. It became too repetitive and boring.

This is a good movie and the entire cast does a very good job but it is not what I thought it was going to be. After seeing the commercials, sneak peeks and behind the scenes shorts I was expecting a movie more in line with the typical Disney fare; a scene providing some information and maybe a story point or two then a song (i.e. Toy Story, High School Musical, etc.). "Into the woods" is more in line with a traditional Opera where every line is done in song. The actress playing Red Riding Hood does a terrific job with her part of the song "Into the woods," you can hear a part of it in the commercials. There is only about 10 minutes of spoken dialogue in the entire movie.

Bottom line is if you do not like the opera production format wait for this movie to come to Netflix (or however you rent movies) so you don't feel so bad about spending so much money if you can't sit through the entire movie.

Greetings again from the darkness. It's a musical, but not a typical musical. It's a fairy tale, but not a typical fairy tale. It's funny, but not a typical comedy. It's a bit frightening, but not a typical monster film. It's filled with lessons of morality and responsibility, but certainly not a typical parable. In fact, there is nothing typical about director Rob Marshall's (Oscar winner for Chicago) screen adaptation of the smash Broadway hit from Stephen Sondheim and James Lupine.

The story revolves around 4 classic Fairy Tales: Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella, in a style much more similar in tone to the edgy Brothers Grimm, than the cuddly Walt Disney traditionals. These four are intertwined with the saga of a baker (James Cordon) and his wife (Emily Blunt) who discover they have been unable to have children due to a long ago spell cast by a wicked witch (Meryl Streep). With a secret agenda, the witch offers the couple a way to break the spell, and that's what ties-in the four tales and provides a reason for adventure and song.

Filmed seamlessly between an elaborate sound stage and a couple of park locations, the film has a dark and eerie feel to it that's probably too intense for younger children. And much of the dialogue and lyrics is aimed directly at adults and will be a blur to kids. Additionally, in typical Sondheim fashion, the songs aren't catchy and melodic in the manner of most movie musicals … instead the lyrics propel the story and help shape the characters. Oh, and by the way, don't expect any fancy dance sequences – this is pretty serious stuff with plenty of angst amongst the characters.

Ms. Streep is extraordinary as the witch (both nasty and beautiful) and does a terrific job with her three main songs. She is especially fun in her entrances and exits, and while wearing the most impactful of all the costumes. Emily Blunt also handles her vocals very well and offers up some of the film's most witty dialogue. Chris Pine (as the Prince) is flat out hilarious, and with a twinkle in his eye, spouts lines such as "I was raised to be charming, not sincere". He also shares the screen with Billy Magnussen (playing the younger brother) in the most audacious of the musical numbers, "Agony". As Cinderella, Anna Kendrick once again proves she is an exceptionally talented singer, and James Cordon anchors the production as the nice guy village baker we are rooting for.

In supporting roles, we have a devilish Johnny Depp whose screen time as the Big Bad Wolf is quite limited, and a perfectly cast Christine Baranski as the evil step-mother in cahoots with her non-Cinderella daughters played by Lucy Punch and Tammy Blanchard. Lilla Crawford is Little Red Riding Hood, and her young age snuffs out much of the innuendo that the Wolf scenes should have provided, and takes the edge off the song "I Know Things Now". Daniel Huddlestone is an energetic Jack, and dependable Tracey Ullman plays his frustrated mom. MacKenzie Mauzy captures the awakening of Rapunzel, while Frances de la Tour frightens everyone involved as the agitated (for good reason) Lady Giant.

Unconventional is the best description of this production, and there is a group of viewers who will be totally captivated by it, while a much larger group will probably find it too dark and bleak, and lacking the easy charm we have come to expect from movie musicals. However, for those of us in the first group, we will be totally enchanted by the characters, story lines, wry humor, costumes, sets, and songs.