Disney’s version of “Into the Woods” is utterly clueless and boring, an adaptation that renders something that was totally fun into something totally dreary.
Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1987 Broadway hit was a slightly sick, plucky wink at the audience, an almost mocking look at the dark side of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. As captured in the 1991 broadcast of “American Playhouse” starring Bernadette Peters, it was a 150 minute long romp with an adult sense of humor. It was hardly the stuff of Disney.
Director Rob Marshall has cut his film version to just over two hours, yet it feels twice as long. On stage, the music of “Into the Woods” was perky, tightly choreographed, consistently funny and almost frantic.
In the movie, most of the songs just fart along. The singers are looking for the emotive, warm, soulful qualities in Sondheim and Lapine’s musical. The problem with that is the original musical didn’t really emphasize those qualities. It was more of an intelligent, operatic goof, not a feel good musical.
This is just another Princess movie, void of humor and clumsily staged. Marshall shoots most of the film on a soundstage, and while that’s admirable as far as catching live music, it has a bland, monotonous look to it.
For those not in the know, the story puts a humorous spin on characters such as Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) from “Jack and the Beanstalk” and Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy).
Most of the film’s plot centers on the Baker (James Corden) and the Baker’s Wife (Emily Blunt), cursed into a childless marriage by the Witch (Meryl Streep) after somebody messed with her garden. While Corden and Blunt sing well, their work is missing something. Only Streep manages to capture that strange, Sondheim whimsy. She is, far and away, the best thing about the movie.
Streep takes her musical moments, like “Witch’s Entrance,” and rises above the production. “Witch’s Entrance” happens early in the film, and at a point where things are slightly promising. That promise gets dashed on the rocks in moments like Crawford’s dreadful, wrongfully earnest rendition of “I Know Things Now,” Red Riding Hood’s post-wolf encounter recollection. Sondheim’s wit is totally lost on Crawford and Marshall.
Johnny Depp shows up for a few minutes as The Wolf in a stupid outfit that makes him look more feline than canine. His “Hello, Little Girl,” a song that is supposed to be rife with innuendo, sounds more like an animal who just wants to eat some food. Marshall and Depp give the number a slow, crooning presentation, taking away its former jaunty, obnoxious edge. It’s just wrong.
Blunt, Corden and Kendrick deliver their numbers as if they were in “The Sound of Music” rather than a clever fairy tale parody. Tracey Ullman changes Jack’s Mother from a snarky bit of comic relief into a disgruntled, cranky mum. Huttlestone, who was awesome in the latest “Les Miserables” movie, does nothing memorable with Jack.
Understandably, Marshall has completely deleted the character of The Narrator from the proceedings. The Narrator acted as a ringmaster in the stage show, and simply couldn’t transition into the movie as a physical presence. Instead, Marshall has Corden’s Baker character provide a typical voiceover that lends nothing in the ways of fun.
The final act involving the Giant’s Wife terrorizing the countryside falls flat due to terrible special effects. Perhaps “Into the Woods” is a stage musical that has no business being adapted to the big screen.
Still, in those few moments where Streep soars, I can’t help but think a director with a more twisted vision, and a studio with a little more balls, could’ve given us something more suitable to Sondheim and Lapine (who, oddly enough, participated in the film’s production).
Dreamworks and Tim Burton did a masterful job with their very R-rated “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” Disney should’ve taken a few cues from them, and allowed “Into the Woods” to retain its sense of mischief rather than neutering it.
This article appears in Dec 25-31, 2014.
It seems like I viewed a different movie than this reviewer. Some comments are a bit valid (Depps performance of Hello Little Girl) but others comments just seem like a bitter person who was ready to hate the film no matter what he saw on the screen. In my opinion that is not way a reviewer should do. Review the movie not what you WANTED it to be. My review of you is: you suck as a movie critic.
The critique about Depp doesn’t make sense because his song/scene is rife with innuendo.
This review is, down to the letter, exactly how this movie was to me. I was looking forward to this film, having seen Into the Woods in 1987 as a child and falling for its dark and charming humor. My children and I have enjoyed watching the production with Bernadette Peters over the years and were hopeful it might be half as good, which was in our minds still quite grand. I was impressed with the opening scene but it soon fell terribly flat. It dragged, feeling unusually long, and for us didn’t pick up pace until well near the end. The singing often felt like a mirror production, voice wise, but lacked personality. There was maybe 2 light chuckles in the packed cinema that we watched it in on Christmas day. We walked out feeling like it was a mild disappointment, not horrible, but it really did lack so much. I was most shocked at the depressing performance of Tracy Ullman, normally an enormously funny and witty persona. I felt like Jack’s mom needed serious clinical help for her depression, and that tone seemed to carry on throughout the entire show.
Solidarity, St. Ends! Solidarity!
This reviewer knew what he was writing even before he saw it. Very very obvious.
Grimm fits the reviewer of the film. Why is he so angry?
Dean…you are totally wrong. I watched the Bernadette Peters version AFTER watching the movie. I had never seen any version of Into the Woods before. I just knew something had to be off when I was watching the movie because I was bored to death.
Elaine…not angry…just doing my job.
Bob, I think your take on ITW is spot-on, and totally credible coming from somebody who’s seen the lovely 91 video, which is a true gem and probably still the best artifact of how to stage and sing and act the show. But. But. Your praise for Sweeney floored me! I thought the Burton version of Sweeney Todd was a real fart buger. I mean, nobody was up for the vocal demands of what is essentially an opera, especially not Helena Bonham Carter, who sounded like a dying flute whenever she opened her mouth. Johnny Depp was just a scowl and a hairdo. The whole thing felt like a lot of fake blood and bad lip syncing — case in point here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuYQrXBKARE
Hi Patrick…I guess it’s about tone for me when it comes to Sweeney. I just feel like Burton got it. I wasn’t offended by the voices, although Angela Lansbury was sorely missed.