Review of Into the Woods (2014) by Ulla D — 27 Nov 2016

"Into The Woods" was recommended to me through a friend who is a fellow musical theater lover. Like them, I loved it as well. The story centers around The Baker (James Corden, in a surprising role, I'm just used to him hosting "The Late Late Show"!) and The Baker's Wife (Emily Blount) and their desire to have a child. The Witch (Meryl Streep) put a curse on their house several years ago, preventing any inhabitants of the house from having children. To lift the curse, she needs certain ingredients from other fairy tale characters (a cow from "Jack And The Beanstock", a golden slipper from Cinderella, Red Riding Hood's cape, and yellow hair from Rapunzel). So the question is, does the Witch keep her promise?

I loved this movie and how all of the stories were woven together. People have said that there was a lot of singing in the movie, but that's what an operetta is. Before I go on in the review, let me just clear up the difference between a musical and an operetta, as some people use these terms interchangeably. A musical is a story that has a combination of songs and spoken dialogue. An operetta has mostly singing in it, with very little, if any, spoken dialogue. Since "Into The Woods" had very little spoken dialogue, it is therefore an operetta. Therefore, if you don't love musical theater or operettas, turn back now.

That being said, the story itself does get intricate. I would suggest familiarizing yourself with the original stories first before seeing "Into The Woods". Definitely get your hands on original copies, if you can. These stories fall more in line with the original Brothers Grimm fairy tales than any other version I have seen. For the "Little Red Riding Hood" story, I would suggest reading the Brothers Grimm version as well as "Lon Po Po", the Chinese version, as both are different than what we're used to hearing, and there will be allusions to both versions. For Cinderella, just read the original tale all the way through.

The acting was excellent in "Into The Woods". I was surprised that Johnny Depp didn't have a larger part, but other than that, the biggest surprise to me was James Corden, taking on a role that I didn't see him taking on. I can't say too much more about the movie without giving it away, but I loved the kids in the movie as well and the few scenes that they did together. All in all, an excellent movie, albeit a bit dark.