Into The Woods is excellent proof that we, as a society, need to rise up and stop Rob Marshall from directing a movie ever again. This long-gestating adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical, a knowing and prescient blend of fairy tale characters from Cinderella to Jack as well as his beanstalk, boasts a lively and mostly capable ensemble of performers, but Marshall’s weak direction and staging of key sequences is the true villain that’s never overcome by any goodhearted hero. Arguably, making such a dark and mature musical at the Walt Disney Company was going to be an insurmountable challenge; getting someone who can block and shoot simple musical sequences shouldn’t have been.
The story focuses on a disparate group in a far-off kingdom: there’s Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), who wishes to attend the king’s festival and perhaps win the heart of a charming prince; there’s Jack (Daniel Huttlestone), who dearly adores his cow but is forced by his mother (Tracey Ullman) to sell it at market; and there’s the Baker and his wife (James Corden and Emily Blunt), who wish to have a child but are under the curse of their next-door neighbor, an evil witch (Meryl Streep). All of these groups venture into the eponymous forest to make their wish come true, crossing each other’s paths as well as those of other familiar faces, like Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford) and the Big Bad Wolf (Johnny Depp). Of course, the traditional ending for such a tale would be happily ever after for all, but anyone familiar with Sondheim’s take knows the second act ventures into fittingly grimmer territory.
Some of that darkness is present in this adaptation, but in a muted fashion. (Again, considering that this is from Disney, it’s in no way a surprise.) The decisions to shorten the film to just over 2 hours–the Broadway show is nearly an hour longer–only serve to heighten some of the flaws of dragging so many iconic figures into one story. Rapunzel, for example, shows up primarily in the first act, but because her fate is drastically different in this film compared to the stage version, her presence is utterly superfluous. The complexities of the show are not so much gone as much as they fade into the background; Depp’s Big Bad Wolf is not quite so lascivious this time around, seeing as Crawford is playing Little Red Riding Hood as a cast-off from a Disney Channel sitcom. As such, his presence, especially considering how small the role has always been, is all the more baffling (and mildly laughable, thanks to the odd costuming).
There are bright spots, divorced from the lifeless and flat direction and cinematography courtesy of Marshall and Dion Beebe. (Seriously, it is possible to film a scene in which a character stands on a staircase, singing out an internal monologue, without cutting pointlessly from close-up to wide shot to close-up to medium to close-up, and on and on. It’s also not necessary to film a number of woods-set scenes where the camera is all but stalking the cast from behind some bushes.) Blunt, in her first singing role, is delightful as the shrewd, honest, if not always faithful Baker’s Wife; her chemistry with Corden is an equal highlight, even if the Baker’s plotline lacks depth on film. The MVP among the supporting cast is Chris Pine as Cinderella’s Prince, who dives into his role with–dare it be said–Shatnerian gusto and camp. His duet with his character’s brother, “Agony,” is maybe a bit too over-the-top, but his work in the film is legitimately hilarious.
It is, thus, quite vexing that even bright spots like Pine or Blunt (or even Streep, who acquits herself better here than in the odious Mamma Mia!) are dampened by Marshall’s almost tacit refusal to allow the story to breathe, or let sequences to play out in full without an overdose of poor framing and excessive cutting. A more minor, but similarly unfortunate, issue is the reliance on special effects, particularly in visualizing events that were previously only spoken of in dialogue and lyrics. It’s tempting to want to see what it’s like for Jack to climb up the beanstalk, but the execution of this image is roughly as dull and colorless as something from the forgettable Jack the Giant Slayer. The same goes for the various times when Streep’s Witch vanishes in front of the Baker’s very eyes–on the stage, this effect is pulled off practically and is far more wondrous than any manner of CGI. This is, basically, the issue with Into the Woods in a microcosm: though some of its parts work well, as a whole, it simply proves that even this more high-concept idea was best left on the stage.
8 thoughts on ““Into The Woods””
This “review” is excellent proof that we, as a society, need to rise up and stop Josh Spiegel from reviewing a movie ever again.
Totally agree w/ your first sentence there! And that rendition of ‘Agony’ is ironically the least agonizing moment of the film!
Spiegel is just pissed that there was no Snow White and her spiegel.
No More.
I acutally think this review was 100% correct! Having seen and even been cast in this show several times I can say without a doubt that the direction did absolutely nothing to capture the magic of this show. The sequences were odd and stinted, filmed with an oddly swaying camera that at times actually failed to frame what (I think) it was meant to capture, like the camera man slipped a bit and they just said ‘eh, that works too’, even if the camera landed somewhere awkwardly on Meryl’s stomach instead of her face while she delivered a line. The lighting choices were odd as well. It ALWAYS looked like daylight streaming through the trees but suddenly they look up and ITS MIDNIGHT, the sky is black and the moon is out, but the actors are washed in warm sunny colors??? Honestly, did anyone watch any of this back and realize that just doesn’t make sense?
Rapunzel was completely unnecessary in this adaption and I don’t understand at all why you would change the ending to her story if you’re going to kill other characters, why not her too? As the story originally calls for. It belittled the ending for the Witch to something confusing and almost laughable when it came to Last Midnight, another HORRIBLY framed scene. Why was the camera all over the place, spinning and dipping and not focusing on Meryl at all. It was just bizarre. And why bring back the Baker’s father at all if he isn’t in the rest of the movie AND they aren’t even going to sing (imo) the pinnacle song of the show (next to another song they sadly cut down to almost nothing, ‘Lament’) ‘No More’? At least have the Baker sing his last part, or even the whole thing himself, the lesson he learns from his experience is in that song and gives the Baker the depth of character and emotion he is largely missing throughout (this is in the stage version as well and I think is actually an important part of the character overall). And overall the cast was great but Anna Kendrick had no place in this film at all. Her voice was okay, but certainly didn’t fit the part, especially when LRRH had an almost more mature sounding voice in parts and she’s a 13yo girl. Kendrick would actually be a great LR in a stage version somewhere I’m sure, but simply not right for this role at all. And her hair and makeup did not fit the film either, both were too modern for the time setting of the movie. Another terrible choice from the director. It’s like she walked off the set of PP2, they slapped a dress on her and put her in front of the camera with no other effort. By far the weakest point next to the directing and odd lighting choices.
I wanted to love it as a fan of the show and Sondheim himself and went in fully willing to overlook inevitable changes and little things that I knew would disappoint me, but as this reviewer said, it simply didn’t come together in any way that made sense at all. There was a movie there, it just was never realized and that is the director’s fault. 100%. It’s his vision that everyone follows and his vision was not a good one.
As my non-theatre brother put it as we left the movie today “So, what was the actual point of all that? It was just super confusing, weird and pretty boring.”
Sadly I have to wholeheartedly agree. Mediocre at best and very disappointing.
Agreed-TERRIBLE! This movie should have been left in the woods and buried there. I wanted to love it, but I just came out of the theater missing my 9 bucks and 2+ hours that I can never have back. Chris Pine did great as the prince and “Agony” was hilarious, but other than that, so much was going on, and hardly any of it actually made the movie any better than the moment before. With a production like this, I was expecting adventure, intrigue, INTEREST! I got none of that. Instead I was confused, disappointed, and bored. Not my favorite, and I WISH I had saved my time and money.
You are a MORON
I SO AGREE. Just saw it and expected to love it. Hated it more than almost any movie I’ve ever seen. And Johnny Depp, shame on you for that creepy take on the “child molesting” character of the wolf as he drooled over a little girl playing Little Red Riding Hood. And Chris Pine, you are one of my favorite actors and you got sucked into that bizarre performance. Run, baby and dissociate yourself from this freak show.
I disagree. I thought the film was beautiful to look at it. Just the source material was kind of weird and bizarre with characters suddenly dying, that was weird.