Review of Into the Woods (2014) by Heatherm — 07 Jan 2015

This is definitely not a movie for people who don't like musicals; some of the trailers didn't make it clear that there would be a lot of singing, so if you didn't already know that Into the Woods is a musical it could be a bit of a surprise. There were some plot elements that didn't quite make sense and left me with major questions, but overall I found the plot engaging and quick. It was familiar enough from the storybook elements that it was comforting, but contained enough twists and unexpected collisions of storyline that it was fresh (for someone like me who walked in not knowing anything about the stage production). There was enough character development that it felt like most characters ended their story arcs in reasonably satisfying ways.

Possibly my favourite part of this movie was just how beautiful it was--the sets and the costumes and the effects were all absolutely gorgeous, and it was just a pleasure to watch in theatres and see all the care and beauty that went into making the movie. The entire cast is beautiful, of course, and the costuming combined with fairly natural/neutral makeup effects (except for the witchy Meryl Streep) added to the fairy tale feeling.

Overall, I quite enjoyed the movie, but it's definitely just for people who are already into fairy tale musicals.