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Plot: The story revolves partly around a baker and his wife are trying to have a child. A witch comes and tells the baker and his wife that his family is cursed so that they cannot have children. But they can reverse the curse if they give the witch four items; the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn and the slipper as pure as gold. So the baker and his wife go on the quest to find these items and come across people from fairy tales who are also wishing for their happily ever after.
As I said before, this movie has gotten people talking. I have friends from high school saying that its, good, the Oscar nominations speak for themselves - heck my brother, Tommy, went so far as calling it fantastic when he saw it- and believe me, considering how skeptical he is as a fellow film buff, that's not a praise I expect to hear very often with him, leastways, not for something like this. So put all of that together on top wanting to see it anyway as someone who was sound crew for a high school production for the musical years ago, and I would be plenty interested to see if it really is as big of a deal as people say it is. So now that I finally saw this movie, what did I think of it? Well, while I wouldn't call it fantastic, I will most definitely say that it's a very well delivered presentation of bringing this musical to film. It gives us almost every single thing that happens in the show from beginning to end, with great performances from the entire cast, good settings, and enjoyable music. A lot of people are praising Meryl Streep for her performance as The Witch and I agree that she is good...but not so good that I see her winning best supporting actress at the Oscars. I mean yes, I will admit that I am saying this because A) I am rooting for Emma Stone for Birdman (which should surprise no one by now) and B) I am still displeased of her "beating" Viola Davis' performance from The Help with her performance in The Iron Lady. But even with those two reasons aside, honestly, she just didn't wow me like everyone else. I mean don't get me wrong, for giving us The Witch from the show, she completely delivered in full, but I don't know if I would really go so far as saying she deserves an Oscar for it. Anyways, Johnny Depp did a creepy yet entertaining job as The Wolf, Emily Blunt and James Corden worked well with each other as The Baker and his wife, Lilla Crawford was a good Red Riding Hood, and Chris Pine was amusing to watch during the song Agony. If I did have a sort of personal favorite, it would probably be Anna Kendrick as Cinderella. Maybe there's something I didn't not catch when I worked on the high school production of the musical, or it's displayed better in the film or both, but I found myself understanding and respecting her character more with what she was doing during the first 2/3rds of the movie. Her performance in the song On The Steps of the Palace developed her character in a way where her actions began to make more sense, which is especially good because I started questioning them earlier on in the movie. If there was a performance that was still really good but I had a problem with one area about it, it would be these brief parts in Daniel Huttlestone's performance as Jack. Again, his performance on the whole was good, but there are two parts in the movie where something happens to someone close to Jack, and when that happens, Huttlestone comes off as unrealistically calm about it. He should be really upset if not almost crying in those two parts in the film, and yet while he is bummed, it just seems really off. He's still great and all, but those moments where really distracting. Now naturally, if you are a fan of the musical or have done a production of it, there are some changes that you may not like. For me personally, the majority of the changes fit really well for a film version of the story. But there are some changes that bum me a little. Like the Mysterious Man's role is almost completely thrown out the window, or how - aside from playing a few notes in the background - the song No More is not used in the film. And it's a real shame to me with the latter, because that is a really nice song. But the biggest problem that people are talking about with this movie is the last third or so. The main complaint is how the last half hour or so - which is basically all of act two from the show - really makes the story drag and hurt the movie as a whole. In my point of view as someone who worked on a production of the show, it didn't really bug me because it was just them still staying true to the material to me...but I do get where they're coming from. Thinking back, I will admit that there are aspects of the story in part two of the show that I wasn't a big fan of, and deep down don't entirely like even now. Anyone who has seen the film already or knows the show, probably has a good idea as to why. So it doesn't really bother me for the film as a whole just from the standpoint of judging it as an adaptation, but that doesn't change that I completely get where people are coming from when they say that they didn't like the last 30 minutes or so of the film.
And that's my review for Into the Woods. If what happens during roughly the last third of the film is not to your liking, I can understand how it can hurt your experience. And naturally, if you don't like this particular musical or musicals in general, this film isn't for you. But for what it is in the eyes of someone who has worked in a production of the musical, I say that despite my own little problems with the movie, Into the Woods does an excellent job of bringing the show into film with its enjoyable cast, great music and generally reasonable changes that leaves me pleased with what Disney delivered.
Rating: 80%
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