Review of Into the Woods (2014) by Akshay H — 30 Jun 2015

Interesting but felt a bit rushed in the third act.

I had neither heard about Into the Woods before nor I am a big fan of musicals. I found the intertwining of the fairy tales of Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Rapunzel quite interesting. But these are not your happy ending fairy tales, it is more dark and depressing for kids. The 4 stories are combined when a baker(James Cordon) and his wife(Emily Blunt) are sent on quest by a Witch(Meryl Streep) so that a spell which made them not have children could be lifted. There are quite many characters here and I feel the film gives enough focus to each one in its apt 2 hours run time. I found the songs quite good and lyrical. Agony, The Last Midnight and Moments in the Woods are my favorites. For the first 2 acts the film is not so dark and depressing, but the last act was kind of complex and not so cheerful. I felt it was a bit rushed towards the end in the way different characters end up at one place. Also I felt Rapunzel's story line was abruptly ended. Anyways I think it tried to say real life is no fairy tale and bad things do happen. The special effect, production design and make-up, hair styling all were great and made it an immersing musical experience. Speaking of the cast, Meryl Streep was awesome as usual, Emily Blunt and James Cordon put up an honest act and Anna Kendrick was good as Cinderella. Johnny Depp didn't shine much in a tiny role as the wolf. Overall, I liked Into The Woods and found it unique plus intriguing. If you are not much into musicals I suggest not to bother about this one, otherwise I feel it was a good enough film.

RATING: [3/5].