Review of Into the Woods (2014) by David L — 02 Jan 2017

This was quite the peculiar film! Not what I was expecting, and definitely not as engrossing as one would expect, what with all the star studded actors involved. The fact that this has come and gone relatively unnoticed perhaps gives an indication as to its success.

I would compare it to Sweeney Todd; not just because it stars Johnny Depp, but because it's full of fictional tales that are told by way of song. It's actually very clever the way it incorporates the stories of several well known children's favourites: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Beanstalk.

However, the musical element is just a complete flop to me. It was not so much songs, than just people speaking lines in a musical fashion. There were no memorable tunes and it's all very repetitive and uncatchy.

It even makes interpreting the words just that little bit more tricky. Of course it's all acted very well and each of the cast has been selected due to their successes in previous operatic like films, but despite the very family orientated concept, this just doesn't work for me.

The 2nd half of the movie also drags on a bit as it tries to adapt the fairy tales into having a much darker take on morality, where several of the individuals die in a short space of time. It's unnecessary and sort of ruins the clever adaptations portrayed in the first half.

I expect this movie to split the audience vote right down the middle, but given the celebrities involved, one would expect the cost of creating this did not reap the rewards it wanted. Definitely one to judge for yourself, but not one to be repeated by me :(.