Movie Review: Into the Woods

Into the Woods (2014)

Three Stars out of Five

PG

Cinderella: Anna Kendrick

Baker: James Corden

Baker’s Wife: Emily Blunt

Witch: Meryl Streep

Director: Rob Marshall

Writer: James Lapine

Writer (musical): James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Into the Woods” reached Broadway in 1987; while there it won three Tony awards, including Best Score. Several attempts were made to convert it into a movie in the 90’s, and Disney finally finished the job in 2014. Just like the musical, the movie version included James Lapine as the writer and many of the original songs by Sondheim. It had Rob Marshall who has the movie version of Chicago on his resume, and it had Meryl Streep breaking her own rule of not playing a witch, playing a witch. So, despite being nominated for three Oscars, what went wrong?

For me, the movie is a string of pearls separated by many onions – they may be pearl onions, but they’re still onions. The first reel of the movie opens charmingly enough. We are introduced to a childless couple of Bakers (James Corden and Emily Blunt), their witch of a neighbor (Meryl Streep), Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Jack of the Beanstalk fame (Daniel Huttlestone), and Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford). They each have an agenda to work through: the Bakers want a child, the Witch wants her youth back, Jack and his mom (Tracy Ullman) need money, and Little Red Riding Hood is evidently hungry. There is undoubted cleverness at weaving the Grimm Brothers' version of each tale into a unified story, and indeed, the first part of the movie does a very good job of creating an interesting narrative. But then, following anti-climax after anti-climax, the movie just kind of peters out after a couple of hours. There are some serious overall story arc issues with this movie.

While the acting and story-telling in the first part of the movie are interesting and cogent, the singing (for the most part) and the lyrics in the early part of the movie were tiresome and not melodic. It was as if someone were singing the words from a movie that was not a musical, and not singing them at all well – I’m looking at you Wolf/Johnny Depp. Of the pearls in this movie, the duet by the two princes (Chris Pine as Cinderella’s dreamboat and Billy Magnussen as Rapunzel’s) did a great job in their song, “Agony”. It was actually a song that was melodious and sardonic. Another great song was the very short one by Cinderella’s mother/tree Johanna Riding, who easily had the best voice in the ensemble. The final song, “Children Will Listen” may have had a confusing message, but it was surely pleasant to listen to.

Acting was at a very decent level with James Corden as the Baker, and most particularly with Emily Blunt as his wife and Meryl Streep as the Witch. The high point of the movie was the witch’s initial entrance into the home of the Bakers. Meryl Streep’s eye-rolling, not quite over the top performance in these very early scenes really captured a sense of comedic acting and summarized brilliantly why the first reel of the movie was the best. Anna Kendrick’s performance as a very irresolute Cinderella was also noteworthy; especially the scene of the Balls’ third night and her third fleeing from the Prince as she finds herself caught in tar and in a moment of time. This kind of clever little aside moment for Cinderella was something that would have benefited the movie had there been more such clever scenes.

What you see for the most part are mistakes like a badly miscast Little Red Riding Hood and associated Wolf. Both characters are written very broadly as sly, wink-wink kind of characters. But neither Lilla Crawford nor Johnny Depp comes anywhere close to infusing their performance with anything but a very superficial resemblance to comedic irony. The oddly typecast Giantess (Frances De La Tour – see the Harry Potter series in order to see her play another Giantess) is a character that does not do anything but mindlessly scream for Jack and then proceed to stomp around. These characters and their scenes not only do not add to the movie, but frankly detract from it.

Is there any message in “Into the Woods”? The odd lyrics in the final song suggest a movie theme but then don't stick to it any consistent manner. In a another song near the end of the movie there might be Sondheim’s and Lapine’s message: “No One Is Alone”. This song is a reasonably decent song to listen to, and the message is certainly a fine one; a message that has special resonance in a post-911 America. Another message is to be found on the movie's poster, "Be Careful of What You Wish For": each of the major characters find out that getting their wish isn't always a good thing - Cinderella finds out what a cad the Prince is, Rapunzel is really not that sure she wants to leave her tower, the Baker’s wife believes she loves and wants her husband, but a little fling in the woods in the Prince is fine too – at least until the Giantess makes her pay for her indiscretion, Little Red Riding really should stick to the path, etc., etc. - mostly minor messages, minor songs, minor performances. As always, Meryl Streep pleases beyond what just about what anyone else can come close to doing. And for me, there were some little surprises like Cinderella on the staircase that make the movie watchable; but again, overall the movie just seemed to go nowhere, and to take a while to get there.