Review of Into the Woods (2014) by Spizer511 — 29 Dec 2014

From Broadway to the Silver Screen: Why can't some musicals make the leap?

I adore the live musical that this movie is based on. I've watched the taped production on Netflix and even own the amazing recording from the original cast.

The Movie? A good attempt at bringing a modern tongue-in-cheek to a contemporary audience. Each of the characters worked in their own parts... but a couple choices seemed to cause this film to feel...off.

The biggest culprit is the pacing. It just goes and goes and goes. One of my favorite lines, "You can talk to birds?" Fell completely flat because it felt like every single line tried to usurp the last. Behold the power of the pause, the power of silence. You won't get a lot of that in this film.

Some characters suffered. The singing was fantastic, I mean, Meryl doesn't disappoint per usual. Sadly the weakest performers for me were Depp and Kendrick. The wolf was too much a cartoon in this otherwise life-like world. And Cinderella, well, her stoic disposition is only betrayed by the occasional smile or tear. Again powerful voice, but if not for the metaphorical botox in her face she would have made for a great character.

Finally, for such a budget and such an effort the number of close shots in this were staggering. Only once every 30 minutes or so were you treated to an establishing shot, such as at the end of the Princes' duet, "Agony". Just like Les Mis, I fear there was too much focus on the expressions of the people and not enough of letting the scene tell the story.

All in all, a good try, but I'm thinking I might skip this one for my collection. At least the movie. The soundtrack is definitely worth a look.