I’ll admit up front that I’m not the audience for Rob Marshall’s “Into the Woods,” an adaptation of the hit Broadway musical (written by James Lapine; music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim). Still, I can say that the movie isn’t a disaster.
The casting is solid across the board; the musical numbers are well staged and paced, moving the action along, with only a few that meander.
That being said, the movie simply has too many elements — too many plot strands and characters to balance — causing the movie to become overstuffed and drag on. At two hours and six minutes, it starts to feel like three.
The story can be best described as Grimm Brothers’ stew, with a few extra ingredients: The likes of Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) Jack (Daniel Huttlestone), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford) and Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy) all interact with one another in the same faraway land. In addition, there’s the Baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) and a surprisingly underdressed Johnny Depp as The Big Bad Wolf — seriously, all he has is a mustache, a tail and ears sticking out of a hat. And there’s not one but two blonde-haired, charming Princes played by Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen — one for Cinderella, another for Rapunzel.
The movie gets off to a great start, introducing the main characters and story in a music number that’s brisk and entertaining. Within 10 to 15 minutes you have a good indication of who these characters are and what they want to achieve.
Due to a curse from The Witch (Meryl Streep) put on The Baker’s father long ago, his wife can’t have children. However, The Witch gives them the chance to reverse the curse, telling them they must go off into the woods and collect magical items from the classic fairy-tale figures.
In the first half of the movie, the basic Grimm fairy tales are reenacted with slight variations, as well as comedic interventions from The Baker and his wife. There’s a fair amount of tongue in cheek-ness that feels refreshing. Each main character brings charm and personality to their roles without going overboard or being bland.
Blunt continues to show that she can have breezy chemistry with any male co-star placed in front of her; she and Corden are fantastic together as the only average characters in fairy tale land. And their encounters with the well-known Grimm figures make for some of the freshest moments in the movie. The Baker trying to yank Red Riding Hood’s cloak off is funny in an absurd, slightly creepy way. Kendrick brings her typical likability and spunkiness to Cinderella, and Pine’s intentionally campy charming Prince act surprising works. Even the immortal Streep is able to generate loose comedic energy as the hideous, bitter witch.
Unfortunately, the cast can’t quite escape the snail’s pace and messy nature of the overarching narrative.
The second half take a different, darker turn. In one sense, this change is welcome because the movie is no longer beholden to the predictability of the Grimm stories, and like in the first half, there are some great individual moments. But things are still messy and unfocused from a story standpoint, including the introduction of a villain in the form a giant (from the beanstalk).
On top of that, there really isn’t much of a change in tone. This most likely has to do with the PG rating and you can certainly feel a darker, more sinister mood The only thing that really gets darker is the screen. There are still plenty of jokes, but there’s no real sense of danger. Even the big CGI moments throughout the picture are largely deficient of thrills. They’re just diluted by a lumbering and bloated story.