'Into The Woods' review by Jake Boyle
Revisionist fairytales haven't being doing too well recently. Particularly springing to mind are the unintentionally comical Snow White And The Huntsman, the Twihard-baiting Red Riding Hood adaptation and the dire state of affairs that the Shrek franchise dissolved into. However, if anything were to buck that trend, it could quite possibly be a collaboration between some of the most prolific absconders of tradition when it comes to fairytales: enter Into The Woods. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's original musical sought to explore the dangerous aspects of these bedtime stories, and Disney have played so fast and loose with existing mythology that most of us think of their heavily censored Grimm stories as being the 'real' version of the tales.
It's a highly uneasy partnership, unfortunately. The film tries to retain the darkness and maturity of the source material at the same time as translating the story into a family-friendly adventure. This often leads to an uncomfortable middle ground wherein nothing of any genuine drama occurs, but the departure from familiar archetypes and feelgood simplicity will presumably alienate the children in the audience. The third act is a genuine joy that manages to be both heartfelt and impishly subversive, but the preceding hour and a half takes far too long to get us to that point. There are some flashes of quality in these earlier stages - Johnny Depp's gleefully predatory wolf, the knowingly posturing angst-off between the two less-than-charming princes - but mostly the film doesn't attempt to engage with any darkness or complexity, and it's essentially played out as a conventional fairytale, without much humour beyond pratfalls to see it through. The stroke of genius by Lapine is that later, when the story reaches the natural conclusion for a fairytale, it suddenly lurches into a moodier and tense state of affairs. This is made so much more dramatic and engrossing by the relative calmness and cheeriness of what came before, but that doesn't adequately justify the more-than-occasional lack of charm and life that came with it.
The actors all play their parts well, but nobody's performance here is exceptionally good. Meryl Streep's at the top of the pile, due to her having the most layered character to play with and her own inimitable expertise. As the hapless couple at the centre of it all, Emily Blunt and James Corden have believable chemistry and get to show abilities in their range that don't often get exhibited. On the subject of ability, Corden is a perfectly decent singer but he can't quite hold his own alongside the rest of the cast, something that becomes incredibly noticeable during his duet with angel-voiced Anna Kendrick. The costume and set design is eye-catching, but for a fantasy film that's really a basic requirement. The contrast between the initial happy section of the film and the later gloomier section is given an atmospheric enhancement by the abundance of garish colours in the former, and total absence of them in the latter. For a musical, the songs are oddly plain, although the aforementioned princely 'Agony' is an absolutely scream, and there's enjoyment to be had in Cinderella's crisis of confidence 'On The Steps Of The Palace'.
While it builds as it goes on and is quite enjoyable by the time it's finished, Into The Woods is a missed opportunity. The highlights show that there was great potential for this film, but it got lost in Disney's mollification process. Going truly dark and embracing the ruination of fairytale morality would have been the best option, but being more realistic to what the film was trying to achieve, far more attention needed to be paid to making this film clever and subversive from the offset. The excellent crescendo of an ending is worth sticking around for, but so much of the needlessly extended build-up to that is frustratingly unadventurous.
It's a highly uneasy partnership, unfortunately. The film tries to retain the darkness and maturity of the source material at the same time as translating the story into a family-friendly adventure. This often leads to an uncomfortable middle ground wherein nothing of any genuine drama occurs, but the departure from familiar archetypes and feelgood simplicity will presumably alienate the children in the audience. The third act is a genuine joy that manages to be both heartfelt and impishly subversive, but the preceding hour and a half takes far too long to get us to that point. There are some flashes of quality in these earlier stages - Johnny Depp's gleefully predatory wolf, the knowingly posturing angst-off between the two less-than-charming princes - but mostly the film doesn't attempt to engage with any darkness or complexity, and it's essentially played out as a conventional fairytale, without much humour beyond pratfalls to see it through. The stroke of genius by Lapine is that later, when the story reaches the natural conclusion for a fairytale, it suddenly lurches into a moodier and tense state of affairs. This is made so much more dramatic and engrossing by the relative calmness and cheeriness of what came before, but that doesn't adequately justify the more-than-occasional lack of charm and life that came with it.
The actors all play their parts well, but nobody's performance here is exceptionally good. Meryl Streep's at the top of the pile, due to her having the most layered character to play with and her own inimitable expertise. As the hapless couple at the centre of it all, Emily Blunt and James Corden have believable chemistry and get to show abilities in their range that don't often get exhibited. On the subject of ability, Corden is a perfectly decent singer but he can't quite hold his own alongside the rest of the cast, something that becomes incredibly noticeable during his duet with angel-voiced Anna Kendrick. The costume and set design is eye-catching, but for a fantasy film that's really a basic requirement. The contrast between the initial happy section of the film and the later gloomier section is given an atmospheric enhancement by the abundance of garish colours in the former, and total absence of them in the latter. For a musical, the songs are oddly plain, although the aforementioned princely 'Agony' is an absolutely scream, and there's enjoyment to be had in Cinderella's crisis of confidence 'On The Steps Of The Palace'.
While it builds as it goes on and is quite enjoyable by the time it's finished, Into The Woods is a missed opportunity. The highlights show that there was great potential for this film, but it got lost in Disney's mollification process. Going truly dark and embracing the ruination of fairytale morality would have been the best option, but being more realistic to what the film was trying to achieve, far more attention needed to be paid to making this film clever and subversive from the offset. The excellent crescendo of an ending is worth sticking around for, but so much of the needlessly extended build-up to that is frustratingly unadventurous.
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