Into the Woods

Musicals of late have incrementally made a comeback compared to those back decades ago. We've seen many including "Chicago", "Nine", "Burlesque", "Moulin Rouge", even "Rock of Ages", and the audiences keep coming back for more. Now with "Into the Woods" in the offing, I believe musicals are going to be around for a while.

This story is a modern twist on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales in a musical format that follows the classic tales of Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy)-- all tied together by an original story involving a Baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt), their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch (Meryl Streep) who has put a curse on them. The witch requires the Baker and his wife to obtain four different objects-- all that come from the four different fairy tales in order to reverse the curse within three days when there is then a blue moon.

Others to round out the cast are Chris Pine as Cinderella's Prince, Tracey Ullman as Jack's Mother, Christine Baranski as Stepmother, Johnny Depp as Wolf, Tammy Blanchard as Florinda, Lucy Punch as Lucinda, Billy Magnussen as Rapunzel's Prince, Joanna Riding as Cinderella's Mother, Simon Russell Beale as Baker's Father and Frances de la Tour as Giant.

This was directed by the musical king, Rob Marshall ("Annie" (TV movie) '99, "Chicago" '02, "Memoirs of a Geisha" '05, "Nine" '09, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" '11). When Marshall directed "Chicago", he may have sabotaged himself, because since then, what he has directed has been good, solid productions, however not the greatness that he was able to accomplish with "Chicago" He simply nailed the direction on that. The pacing, the stage numbers were executed with perfection. With this, it was solid, but the pacing and staging was just a bit off--like I said, he raised the bar a bit too high, so anything subsequent is not quite as polished. This was written by James Lapine based on the musical by Stephen Sondheim and Lapine. Connecting four different fairy tales is certainly original and fresh, but there were some places that were a bit too slow, so a bit long-in-the-tooth. Otherwise, the translation from stage play to the movie screen was executed well. As production values go, one couldn't expect any more: the photography by Dion Beebe, acs/asc ("Chicago") and costumes designed by the incomparable Colleen Atwood ("Alice in Wonderland") were amazing and will probably be looking at Oscar nods come that time. And, of course, what can I say about the music? The best part of this has got to be the music and lyrics by  legendary Stephen Sondheim.

As films go, this being a whimsical comedy/fantasy production, being able to go into a theater and escape into total fantasy and adventure is what we all need to get us through that thing called life!

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                        Rated: PG                          124mins.