For my first film review it will go into the category of "Now Playing Cinema" which will mean its is currently in theaters (well for me...since I live in Korea at the mo).
Going to start off the new years with the film Into the Woods.
Into the Woods is one of Disney's holiday season showing films and honestly it took me by surprised. If one doesn't know the play, it seems advertised as another little childish romp in the woods with fairy tell characters and song with an amazing all star cast with stop what you are doing and listen "
It is far from that. In a really good and positive way.
Into the Woods' plot is introducing the characters who are set in a fairy tale kingdom. We meet Cinderella, Jack (from Jack and the Beanstalk), the Baker and his childless Wife, and Little Red Riding Hood. They all sing (unknowingly together) about what they wish most of all. Cinderella wants to go to the ball, Jack wants to keep his best friend who is a cow, the Baker and his Wife want a child and Little Red wants to have a safe trip to Grandmother's house. This sets up the story where the "Old Witch From Next Door" approaches the Baker couple and sets them forth into the woods in a quest to break a curse over them and the Witch which inadvertently effects all the characters and later brings disastrous consequences to the kingdom.
Not to go into a straight play by play of the film (because I can't stand spoilers and want you the reader to enjoy the movie without knowing exactly what is next), I'm going to talk about what I liked and what I disliked.
First off, the thing that I think shines the most in this film is the cast. Oh man, did they get a cast that fits perfectly for Disney's equivalent of Les Miserable. I'm going to first address the main leads in detail and then short blurbs on the other characters.
The Cast:
The Witch: Meryl Streep
Meryl plays the cursed Witch who sets the Baker and his Wife on their quest to break their curse of infertility on their house while at the same time trying to break her own curse her mother placed in the loosing of the "magic beans" from her garden. Meryl rocks this role. Oh my god, like words can't even describe it fully how grand she is in this film. Both forms of the Witch (the cursed form and her true beauty form aka her mega-evolution...sorry...had to make a Pokemon joke) she plays so amazingly well. The Witch is pretty much this rouge character and you can't say she is good or bad. Her songs are amazing and Meryl I think just enjoyed playing this character. I really enjoyed the mother role she plays for Rupenzal's story and the conflicts you see in those points of the story. Her final song I think plays the best to Meryl's role which was "Last Midnight". I loved this song and I think it shows the Witch's true role in the film of pretty much the monkey paw character. "You all made wishes for this and now you have deal with the consequences." Even she faces this after Rupenzal rejects her in the second part of the story and I viewed her triggering her mother's curse again by losing more magic beans (which oddly don't grow into the giant summoning bean stalks) was kind of her being like "I'm done with this. Want to blame me? Fine. Have fun with the giant."And even in this departure she still aids the characters in saving the kingdom.
Even if this movie doesn't float well with you, Meryl will make it worth the watching.
The Baker's Wife: Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt plays the Baker's wife and is one of my favorite characters (ah to hell...all the characters where great). Blunt's performance was awesome and she plays very well with James Corden's character of the Baker. I love her character and I feel many people will (or already have) fall for her. In the first act of the film, she like her husband wish for a Child and it is her main goal. But in her quest to find the items needed, she wanders and interacts with Cinderella and Prince Charming. Here we see a contrast of Cinderella doubting if the royal way of life is for her and the Baker's wife seems infatuated at the idea of living in the place. This interaction wonderful plants the seeds for act 2 (quite literally actually). In act 2, the Baker's wife is finally has a child but now that she has a family she starts to doubt if it is really what she wants. When she goes looking for Jack to protect him from the wrath of a widowed giant, she meets Prince Charming again and the two....in the chaos that is occurring in the wood...have an affair. The Prince woos her into a kiss and then they kiss and kiss and kiss. Pretty much Disney's first non-animated "Sex scene in song and dance". This affair though when it over Wife realizes her wants are not as lasting as her needs (her husband and child) and gives the performance of my favorite song "Moments in the Woods." In the joy of realizing she doesn't need the affections of the prince she gets lost in the woods and meets a rather sad and tragic fate. Its quite sad. Made me sad. I liked the Baker's Wife remember.
The Baker: James Corden
I first saw James Corden in his roles in the Matt Smith era of Doctor Who and I am always delighted to see him on the screen. I saw him in Begin Again and he played a great role and that. Being one of the leads in Into the Woods, he rocks the role of the Baker. In a way, James Corden's Baker reminds me of his character in Doctor Who (even we get a "why does the baby cry whenever I hold it" line in the second act). Corden's Baker is such a great character and I feel that he is the character who the audience loves because he questions the actions of the other characters as we would. Corden's interaction with the other characters are amazing and he seems to ask them the audience's questions of "why the hell would you do that?" His signing is impeccable as well and he just...its almost meets no words on how good he performed in this production. Corden does a really good job of also playing the motions that the Baker's attitude towards being a father and dealing with the fear of becoming like his own. He also plays the Narrator (which is explained why at the end of the film) and the delivery of the darker narrations of the film is flawlessly delivered in some dark humor. Example "and then Cinderella's birds made the step sisters...blind". The Baker is my favorite character in this production and next to Streep, delivers an amazing and drawing display for the audience.
Cinderella: Anna Kendrick
Anna Kendrick.... the beautiful beautiful angel known as Anna Kendrick, plays Cinderella. And plays Cinderella fantastically she does. I have never seen Pitch Perfect but now I have to see it just so I can her here sing even more and watch her just natural gift of acting. Her Cinderella maybe my favorite portrayal of the character. I like seeing how she captures the emotions of this version of Cinderella's reluctance seen after her wish to go to the ball is answered by her Mother's spirit. I do like this change that there is no "Fairy Godmother" and that is was the soul of Cinderella's mother that beautifies her to enter the festival for the Prince. Her interactions with the other characters of the Kingdom are great. Her performance with Prince Charming is fantastic because her expression demonstrate the hesitation that even though Prince Charming is the"perfect guy" we detect she can see past it and notice that maybe he's not all that everyone says he is. Her bird summoning power is first cute but then...as the story continues to get darker..because this pretty vengeful power (making her stepsisters blind. Killing the giant. Spying on the Prince and telling her about his adultery with the Baker's wife.) My favorite song she does "On the Steps of the Palace" where she decides that she doesn't want to choose where she belongs anymore and tests the faith of the Prince's longing for her by leaving her shoes on the stairs of the palace. The humor of this song and how she performs (which is pretty much her having a song explain her quick thinking while the world slows down around her) is just very well performed and executed in the film. I definitely have a heart throb for this musical actress because of this movie.
Cinderella's Prince "Prince Charming": Chris Pine
To be honest...I thought having Captain Kirk and Jack Frost Chris Pine be in a musical was quite a surprisingly form of casting. And when seeing him preform in this movie, its a surprisingly good performance from an otherwise known action film actor. Chris Pine's Prince Charming is best described by one of his last words in the production after his affair with the Baker's Wife is addressed to him by Cinderella. "I was taught to be charming, not sincere." His over played emotions of love and romance are best demonstrated by his duet with Rapunzel's Prince (Played by Billy Magnussen) that Prince Charming is simply just a Prince Charming and can't get past the fact that other people are more important than his quest to be the "loving prince". Chris Pine does a brilliant and humorous job of being this sexual driven Prince of the kingdom. I kind of wish he had more screen time because his pursuit for Cinderella and later the Baker's Wife is just funny and interesting to portray the fairy tale princes to being spoiled deviants.
The Wolf: Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp's role for Into the Woods is a very glorified actor cameo playing probably the most perverted character in the whole movie. Even though Depp's performance captures the predatory nature of the Wolf, his song "Hello, Little Girl" is like a pedophiles' anthem. Its a very well portrayed song but it does kind of have a very sexual nature. Johnny Depp does a grand job of portraying the Wolf as a sleazy and cunning Wolf. I honestly wonder if Depp's was portrayed as an actual Wolf and not as a theatrical humanized wolf that this sexual lust for the "plump little girl" would give the audience of a predatory wolf and not a predatory man in the woods who wants the little cute girl. I think its a very good thing that Johnny Depp's role is relatively brief in the production...because god know what would happen if he saw Jack too.
Little Red Riding Hood: Lilla Crawford
Lilla Crawford is introduced for the first time to the screen as Little Red Riding Hood. She apparently performed as "Annie" in the most recent production of the spunky little red haired orphan in New York and now she puts on the red hood to portray one of my favorite rendition of the little girl on the way to her grandmother's house. Hilarious when she first appears since she sings well while stuffing her face with the Baker's goods that she needs for "Grandmothers" house, she is a no nonsense little girl in a nonsense kind of world. I like also how she wears the deceased Pedo-Wolf's fur as her new coat and after her song "I Know Things Now" which also reflects she was happy to have met the Wolf because he showed her there was much more to the world, she pities him for his ravenous nature and is happy he is dead. She also reveals a very good morale of "Nice is different than Good." After her song which is performed well and very in the manner that a child has learned a lesson. Through out the rest of the film, she kind of is the logical one of the group of characters lost in Woods. I also really like that she is pities the Giantress that they have to kill her (which leads to my favorite non-Streep song of the performance). I do hope that Crawford appears in more musical films because I think she has a good talent for the musical sides of the silver screen.
Rapunzal: Mackenzie Mauzy
Rapunzal's role in the story is the stolen child / adopted daughter of Meryl Streep's Witch. Honestly though I wish I could say more about this character but the plot story of Rapunzal in the film is mostly to show the more motherly side of Streep's Witch and because of this I feel she becomes quite lacking. She doesn't really have much a song, except for the melody she sings that attracts her personal prince. This plot point though might show the most diabolical side of the Witch since Streep grows dangerous thorny vines in an attempt to kill Rapunzel's Prince to keep her safe. Rapunzal doesn't really play too much and its kind of sad. I have read she has more of a roll in the stage production and has a much more tragic end on stage than in the film (where she simply just leaves the witch and is never seen again.)
Jack: Daniel Huttlestone
Oh look! Its the British boy who rocked as the street urchin Gavroche in the latest film version of 2012's Les Miserable. It was a welcomed surprise to see the English born actor be a lead in this film and he portrays a very good Jack. The beans, the love for his cow, and his thirst for adventure makes him an enjoyable character whenever you see him. He is also a character with a lot of heart because he steals from the giants mostly to make his Mother (played by Tracey Ullman) live a better life and to buy back his best friend, Milky White the cow. The energy of Jack is great because you see him grow up in this film. When we first see him he is a carefree boy but when the Giants come down to Earth, he starts to realize that he should probably stay away from adventures. His relationship with the Bakers is also great interactions. The best interaction is when he meets Little Red Riding Hood and she challenges him to prove his tales (which leads to the death of the first Giant). Jack and the Baker's relationship is great because their bond as strangers grows into a sort of big brother / father and son relationship. The most fun Jack song is "There are Giants in the Sky" which is his playful recounting of his adventures in the lands high above the clouds.
There are other characters that are all great and fabulous. Cinderella's family is portrayed well and the appearance of the Baker's Ghost of a Father is a nice touch to help impact the characters to grow into people who should be more careful of what they wish for
The best quality of this film I think is that is very much acts like a stage play that isn't constricted to the stage. . Like how the giants are portrayed only briefly in a way you could imagine that despite they could easily show us the whole thing...its like the giants are still restricted to how they would be portrayed in a play. This adds for cinematic effects to allow a greater sense of the world these characters are in and I applaud the effects and camera angles that allow the audience to get more of an impact from the performance and songs. I think the greatest effect is the end where we see the that the wishes of these main characters have lead to the near destruction of the kingdom.
My one nitpick about the film is two continuity problems: Rapunzel's hair being cut the first time and the kind of disappearance of everyone who are not the main cast. They get introduced well but I feel like their departures are a bit....too soon?
To close, Into the Woods is an amazing film and a delight to watch. This film is not though for young children due to the much darker and the adult themes are good, but I feel that for a younger audience they won't get it to the effect that they could possibly loose interest in the story all together. It really stretches its PG rating. I would recommend seeing this film in theaters. The cast is great. The story is brilliant and from my readings it plays very true to the original stage production for the most part. A great film and a bold undertaking for Disney. Go see Into the Woods and the dark tale of warning what wishing for something can get you if that wish comes true!
Henry Rating:
9.5 / 10
"So good you'll listen to the soundtrack immediately for a whole weekend and figure a way to see it again with friends."
Hope you enjoyed the review!
Later Gators,
The Madman in the Cheap Seats
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