Meryl Streep shows the good side of her character The Witch in Disney’s Into the Woods. Photo/IMDb
[dropcap]D[/dropcap]isney is treating us all to another ensemble fairy tale this year with Into the Woods, and this time, the stakes are raised. Based on a Tony-winning musical of the same name from the late 80’s, the story, adapted from various storybooks, surrounds a couple on a mission for a witch trying to restore her lost beauty.
The couple (James Corden and Emily Blunt), a baker and his wife cursed by the Witch (Meryl Streep) to never have children because of the misdeeds of the baker’s father, set off (that’s right) into the woods to retrieve a milk-white cow, a yellow hair, a red cape, and a gold slipper – which they have to get from Jack (Daniel Huttlestone), of Beanstalk fame, Rapunzel (MacKenzie Maury), Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), and Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), respectively – in hopes of breaking the spell.
Hollywood has been trying to transplant Into the Woods from the stage to the screen since the 90’s. Despite the wait and the bevy of adaptations of Grimm fables over the years, the movie has a lot going for it.
The musical component remains, with songs by Stephen Sondheim (creator of the original stage production with James Lapine, who also wrote the movie), and the cast delivers performances that are both complex and irreverent. James Corden’s Baker wrestles with his upbringing and being a good husband and father in a very realistic way, while female characters, like Red Riding Hood (a klepto foodie this go-round), have their typical sweetness played down in favor of their flaws and foibles.
Chris Pine, as Cinderella’s relentless and charming (but not sincere) Prince, and Meryl Streep are the ultimate showstoppers. Pine’s duet with Billy Magnussen, “Agony,” is an amusing highlight, and hard to top. Streep renders an engagingly villainous role with depth; the Witch, though unlikable, has heart as a jealous, overprotective mother to Rapunzel – whom, yeah, she kidnapped and kept prisoner.
Though a marquee player, Johnny Depp plays a Big Bad Wolf you might not be afraid of (and could miss) in Into the Woods. Photo/Entertainment Weekly
Rob Marshall, a veteran of directing musicals for the screen (with successes such as Chicago to his credit), is a good choice to keep all the disparate elements together. The setup is executed briskly with the characters venturing to the forest within the first 20 minutes – to get to Grandma’s house, sell a cow, get home before midnight, etc.
The film lags a little toward the climax by going into Jack the Giant Slayer territory, and suffers from an evanescent use of Johnny Depp as a featured player, but is rife with self-aware wit everyone will enjoy without feeling talked down to.
