It seems to have become tradition in cinema for certain styles of films to be released at particular times of the year, the most popular of which is the holiday season. While the summer season may be better known for its yearly turnout of large-scale blockbuster extravaganza films, the winter season is littered with films of a different nature. If you think your film is Oscar material, the holiday season is the release date to shoot for.
Thus, these winter months are absolutely overridden with historical dramas, adaptations of classic literature, musicals and other works whose sheer subject matter instantly makes them contenders for awards. Some are quality work, others blatant Oscar-bait.
This year, one such film (which fits into the “musical” category), is Into the Woods, directed by Rob Marshall (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides). This film bursts onto the scene with an all-star cast and a top-notch writing team. But is this musical a spectacle worth seeing? Or is it simply an attempt to cash in on popular intellectual property?
Based on the hugely popular Broadway musical of the same name, Into the Woods offers a creative — and surprisingly dark — spin on classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales. It mixes several well-known stories together to answer the question: What happens after ‘happily ever after?’
The film tells the story of a baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) as they embark on what can only be described as a magical scavenger hunt. The baker’s wife has been cursed with infertility by a witch, and the couple seeks to break this curse in order to have a child. In exchange for lifting the curse, however, the witch demands four items: a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn and a slipper as pure as gold.
As the couple set out to find these items, they cross paths with other famous fairy tale characters including Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel. Each of these characters brings their own respective fairy tale story to the table and each seeks the same final goal: to live happily ever after. As their independent struggles converge, conflict inevitably ensues, and the characters find that nothing they seek is ever what it seems. They begin to learn that “happily ever after” is a concept as farcical as it sounds.
While at first glance the film seems to be a simple spin on classic fairy tales, Into the Woods offers much more than simple reinterpretations. Those familiar with the original show can take comfort in knowing that the screenplay was written by James Lapine, one of the two creators of the Broadway musical. Perhaps for this reason the story is more faithful to the source material than most cinematic musicals on the market. That being said, simply staying true to the source material is irrelevant to the quality of the film. The question still remains: As a film, is it any good? Yes, yes it is.
Going into the film, it is important to realize that this is very much a deconstruction of classic works. Into the Woods is not a traditional Disney film in the sense that it goes beyond simply retelling or slightly twisting the fairytales represented. Into the Woods is dark in more ways than one. Violence, depression, tragedy and moral dilemmas are at the core of this film. As a result, its tone is unrelenting from beginning to end.
In the film, the princesses are dissatisfied, the villains are sympathetic and the endings are only happy because they want the viewer to think they are. Everything is, in short, depressingly human. Every high point in the plot has a corresponding low, preventing any sense of catharsis from tearing the audience away from the grim reality of this fantasy.
Even the musical numbers, which in a setting like this could very easily serve to tear away the realism of the emotions and conflicts, serve only to enhance the emotion of each scene. The soundtrack was beautiful on Broadway, and it’s beautiful here. However, the omission of several key songs from the film leaves some scenes feeling noticeably incomplete. This issue is to be expected in film adaptations, which by necessity are shorter than their stage counterparts. Even so, their absence is noted, and the film does suffer slightly because of it.
The ensemble cast brings a high bar of quality to the table, but the real standout performance comes from Meryl Streep playing the witch. While it would be easy for the witch to be a one-note villainess, her character, motivations and actions are surprisingly emotional and complex. Streep manages to capture every nuanced emotion to surprising effect. While the remainder of the cast does an exceptional job, both in and outside of the musical scenes, Streep’s performance absolutely steals the show. Her performance alone is worth the price of admission.
Despite some awkward issues in storytelling, which is likely the result of turning a full-length Broadway production into a film, Into the Woods functions surprisingly effectively and doesn’t waste a single minute of its two-hour runtime. Perhaps the most faithful adaptation of a stage musical committed to film in recent memory, Into the Woods is sure to carry its audiences deep into the dark, grim depths of “happy” endings.
Overall rating: 4/5
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