I’m sure I sound like a broken record when I say this but I’m not a big fan of musicals. There are very few that I truly like and they usually have to be very raunchy and comedic, though there are exceptions. When I sat down to screen Rob Marshall’s new film Into the Woods, I had no idea it was a musical, let alone an adaptation of a widely popular Broadway musical. I found this out 20 minutes before the movie, got a little basic backstory from a friend who loves the musical and, thankfully, was able to prepare myself for this fantasy adventure that I was about to embark on.
When a baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) discover that the reason they can’t have babies is because the witch (Meryl Streep) next door put a curse on the baker’s bloodline, the two decide to take-up the task of gathering specific items for her so that she’ll lift the spell (a cow, a red cape, yellow hair, a gold slipper).
Into the Woods is a mash-up story of a bunch of different fairy tales, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), and Rapunzel, all connected by a single theme of fulfilling wishes via quests and a single plot involving the childless baker and his wife. It’s a pretty cool and clever concept that, as you can probably imagine, works remarkably well on the screen. From the incredible talent and strong performances, to the costumes and, if Stephen Sondheim is your cup of tea, good music, the film delivers on nearly every front.
My favorite part of the film has to be when Cinderella’s Prince (Chris Pine) and Rapunzel’s Prince (Billy Magnussen) sing the song “Agony.” It’s my favorite song of the film and probably the funniest sequence in the entire movie. I’m not going to spoil it but let’s just say this movie does wonders for making fun of the prince charming stereotypes. To add to that, Chris Pine steals every scene that he’s in. It’s a perfect casting choice for the role and he absolutely nails it. It’s great to see him doing comedy because, like Channing Tatum, he’s become a much more likable guy because of this transition.
Though the film is PG, I don’t really know how to classify it because this film is very much adult oriented. The kids will enjoy all the fairy tale stories but the lyrics in some of the music and a bunch of the dialogue heavily skews towards adults. Nothing bad is actually said but there are a bunch of sexual insinuations, humor that only adults would appreciate and understand, and there’s that Little Red Riding Hood song called “I Know Things Now” which is essentially about being raped. Secondly, while the first half of the film is pretty lighthearted, the second half takes a pretty dark turn. Throughout the film, people die, limbs are lost, hearts are broken, and, even when some if it is pretty funny, it still rather surprising if you know nothing about the film. Regardless, I appreciated most of it but, again, it still blows my mind how much adult content you can put into a film without it coming off as raunchy or inappropriate. I tip my hat to Marshall, the screenwriters and Sondheim for somehow managing to accomplish this great task.
Since this is a Disney film, and a PG one at that, the film has a couple of faults that are simply unavoidable due to my age at this point. One, as an adult, the film can be incredibly cheesy at times. I don’t if it’s because I thought the dialogue-driven scenes that featured Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) and/or Red Riding (Lilla Crawford) felt almost too childish or over-the-top, but there was something that didn’t work for me at points and it could have simply been the delivery.
Overall, I was surprised how enjoyable Into the Woods was. It’s not my cup of tea and there are some numbers I’d like to never listen to again, particularly anything involving Red Riding Hood, her high-pitched voice pierced my ear drums, but the movie wasn’t bad. It’s much more adult oriented than expected and while much of it may not be ideal for men that could care less about musicals, the parts that are truly entertaining make most of the movie worth it, at least for one watch.
Rating: If you’re a fan of this musical or musicals in general, you’re going to love this movie, if you don’t, it’s still not that bad (6.7/10)
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