Into the Woods★★★3/4
Woods are dangerous
Be careful what you wish for
Love Meryl's blue hair
A witch tasks a childless baker and his wife with procuring magical items from classic fairy tales to reverse the curse put on their family tree.
WARNING: Possible spoilers ahead.
I love musicals. (See: My excitement over Galavant.) But I don't often see them in the actual theater (i.e., live action), so I have to wait until they're adapted for film. And then, it's a bit of a crap shoot whether they'll be good adaptations or poor ones. I'm not sure where the film version of Into the Woods falls on that spectrum—if you've seen the musical live, do speak up!—but I know that it was a pretty fun time at the movies, regardless.
Into the Woods features a spectacular cast who, surprisingly in some cases, can sing quite well. Meryl Streep was fantastic, and dang did she look gorgeous as the prettier version of the witch. (Love that blue hair!) I adore Anna Kendrick, and am always glad when she sings in a role. Emily Blunt and James Corden, as the baker's wife and baker, respectively, played off of each other nicely. As Mr. Wolf, Johnny Depp once again the creepy type a little too well. (But he's still sexy doing so! Even in wolf makeup.) And Chris Pine was hilariously smarmy as Prince Charming. I did not, however, enjoy Lilla Crawford as Little Red Riding Hood. There's just something about her/the way she acted in the role that rubbed me the wrong way.
I would have liked more humor in the movie, however. There was a bit—the song between the two princes was particularly awesome—but the rest of the movie was more serious than I was expecting, especially after how over-the-top many of the characters were. The movie also drug on a little; I actually thought it was over before the whole giant business began.
I'm all for more musicals hitting (film) theaters, though, so the more power to this movie to do well.
I have plans to Netflix this - the hubs and I both enjoy a good musical, and I'm curious to see how this one is!
ReplyDeleteI love it! And I agree with all your comments.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this adaptation! As a huge lover of the original stage musical, I was really skeptical of the movie until about a month before it came out. Then I got more and more excited for it!
ReplyDeleteRegarding the humor: I agree that a lot of the humor fell flat on screen. I was expecting certain lines to be delivered certain ways, and when they weren't, the jokes were totally lost. I highly suggest finding a copy of the recorded stage version of the original Broadway cast (As much as I loved Meryl in the film, Bernadette Peters IS the Witch) that they filmed for PBS, i believe. You'll see how the dry humor comes through a lot more because they have to project more on stage than on a big screen.
BLUE HAIR! :) Hmm I hadn't heard of Into the Woods (I generally don't follow what movies are out), but it sounds interesting!
ReplyDelete<3 Kelsea | Kels Shark
Yes! Look at this fierceness: http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/into-the-woods2.jpg
ReplyDeleteP.S.—Got your Christmas card yesterday. Thank you! It's awesome.
ReplyDeleteP.S.—Got your Christmas card yesterday. Thank you! It's awesome. :)
ReplyDeleteGood to know. Thank you for this! I would like to check out the original, and I'd love to see it on stage someday.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear it!
ReplyDeleteIt was fun. Not the best I've ever seen, but entertaining. :)
ReplyDelete