Review : 0003
Title
: Into The
Woods
Year
: 2014
Director
: Rob
Marshall
Country
: United
States
World’s
Verdict :
Rotten Tomatoes – 71%; Metacritic – 69 out of 100; IMDB – 6.0 out of 10.0.
My
Verdict :
3.7 out of 5.0.
It was after
watching the film and checking Into The
Woods in Wikipedia that I learned that this film was based on a musical by Stephen Sondheim. At first I thought that Disney was pretty
smart to stitch a story from different fairy tales, sort of like what was done
in Shrek. I was really surprised when I learned it was
based on a musical from the 80s. Imagine
that.
I admire the
creativity embedded in the plot. Fairy
tale characters meeting in the woods, each one having a different
agenda. Jack (in the beanstalk) wanted
to sell his cow, the witch from Rapunzel wanted to be young again, a couple
wanted to have a child, Cinderella wanted to go to the ball, Little Red Riding
Hood wanted to visit her granny. All of
them crossed paths in the woods. When I
thought the story was about to end with a happy ending a new conflict began, the last
thirty minutes of the movie seemed like a sequel. I do applaud the writers of the original play.
In this review
I will focus more on the performance of the actors. Here are what I can say for each of them:
Meryl
Streep as
The Witch – No question that it was a good performance but does she deserve an
Oscar nominee for Best Actress in a Supporting Role? Nah, I don’t think so. 1) Her
role was not even supporting, she was one of the lead actors in the movie. In my blog I decide if a role is a lead or a
supporting one. 2) Her portrayal reminds me of a cross between
her Mamma Mia! and Death Becomes Her characters. She was okay in Mamma Mia! but terrible in Death
Becomes Her.
Emily
Blunt as The
Baker’s Wife – Blunt was good in this
film. I adored her when she wanted to be
a mother in the film, got worried for her when she started to fall into
temptation and got sad on what happened to her at the end.
James
Corden as
The Baker – His acting was a little gayish in the first part of the film then
became more masculine in the latter part.
He reminded me of Jack Black
in this movie and I think Jack Black would
have been better for this role.
Anna
Kendrick as
Cinderella – She did not fit the role. She sounded a little pitchy, too. She did not even
feel the role. It almost was a lazy
acting. She was like a singing Kristen Stewart, you just don’t get too much expression
on her face.
Daniel
Huttlestone as
Jack – This boy’s good. I believe he is my
favorite character in the film.
Lilla
Crawford as
Little Red Riding Hood – She was annoying at first but she sang very well so you will eventually forgiver her.
Chris
Pine as
Cinderella’s Prince – He was actually good in this film and he had a good
singing voice, too.
Johnny
Depp as The
Wolf – The problem with this role for Depp
was that I saw him as Johnny Depp
and not The Wolf. If I see more of the
actor than the character that means it’s either bad makeup or bad acting.
Tracey
Ullman as
Jack’s Mother – Good.
Billy Magnussen as Rapunzel's Prince – He
was okay, too.
Christine
Baranski as
Cinderella's Stepmother – She was perfect for this role.
MacKenzie Mauzy as Rapunzel – Why didn’t she
sing in the movie? Her character was
essential to the story but seemed useless because she was the only one who did
not sing. Her character wasn't well thought of. She cried a lot, ran away
during an earthquake because she was scared (who wants to be alone during an
earthquake?). She did not even meet her
brother (The Baker), there was no closure on that one. I just didn’t grow to love her character in
the film.
Fairy tales are
actually gruesome stories that became child-friendly over time. The original Rapunzel fornicated with the
Prince, and her prince was blinded by the witch. One of the original versions of Cinderella
tells how the step-sister cut parts of their feet to fit the glass slipper and
how the birds of Cinderella pecked their eyes for revenge. I liked how these details were incorporated
in Into The Woods it shows that the
writers relied on the original fables rather than sugar-coated Disney fairy
tales. Into The Woods, just like original fairy tales, is a story for
adults but became friendly when it became a Disney film.
Did I like the
movie? Yes, but not so much. Am I going to watch it again? Not in the near future. Would I recommend it to you? Yes, but don’t expect too much from this
movie.
