Movie musicals are hard.
Into the Woods is movie adaptation of the well known musical by Stephen Sondheim, the composer best known for Sweeney Todd. It’s the story of a Baker and his wife, who, in order to break a spell put on them by a witch, must track down four fairy tale objects: Cinderella’s slipper, Red Riding Hood’s coat, Jack’s (from Jack and the Beanstalk) cow, and Rapunzel’s hair. The musical is known for it’s dark tone and increasingly self-referential plot. The movie is by Disney.
Movie musicals are hard, and adapting a dark, adult musical into a PG rated film for families is even harder. I had not listened to or seen the musical Into the Woods, but according to my friend who I saw it with, the PGifying mainly entailed cutting out a lot of the darkness in the second act. Not knowing what was missing, the second act still felt a bit off, as the darkness of the events taking place and the attempt to lighten these events was rather disconnected. The second half still turns the fairy tale stories on their heads, but it feels distinctly like something darker is being held back.
Movie musicals are so hard, and the problem all movie musicals face is how to adapt the structure of a stageplay, which is written with large musical setpieces and limited locations in mind, to the film medium, which allows for a lot more flexibility. Some films, like Chicago, take advantage of this difference, and completely change the structure of the story to suit the language of film. Some, like last year’s Les Miserables, have no idea what they’re doing, and just put the actors on camera for the entire length of a four minute long musical number, leaving the audience to ponder Hugh Jackman’s pores. Into the Woods leans towards the latter, and most of it looks like you’re just watching a filmed rehearsal of the musical shot in the woods, without much consideration of adapting it into a movie. Characters stand next to each other and face the camera, singing at the audience, but without any nods to the fourth wall that could justify it. My one word review after the film was “lazy.” It’s incredibly lazily shot, and doesn’t use the fact it’s a film to tell the story at all. Hell, even the costumes, which would look amazing onstage, are stage costumes.
The one thing I will really praise about the film is the acting, which was pretty delightful to watch. All of the actors, save maybe for a few child actors, are really excellently cast, and seem to be having a lot of fun in the movie. Chris Pine, especially, as Cinderella’s prince, was incredibly funny and entertaining, and I would have gladly spent much more time with him ripping his shirt open for emphasis than the film did. Emily Blunt, who I adore, was great as well, and most of the leading roles were really well cast and acted. The singing is fine for a movie musical, though I’m not normally too picky on that front.
Into the Woods is a good musical, but definitely not a good movie musical. I’d say it’s worth taking a look at just for the actor’s performances, but the movie’s not going to offer you much more than that, and the story feels neutered by the rating. It’s not the laziest movement of a musical to the screen I’ve seen, since I’ve seen the Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane version of The Producers, but if you’re a fan of the original musical, or require more than a camera on a tripod pointed at actors to enjoy a musical onscreen, this movie won’t have much for you.
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