This has always been one of my favorite Sondheim musicals. Though it seemed ready-made in some ways for a screen adaptation, which was kicking around in development hell for many years, there were also other aspects of the show which were very ill-fitting and thoroughly stage-bound. The concept is still as prescient and thought-provoking now as it was when it debuted. The basic story revolves around a series of fairy tales combed together into one larger narrative about the wish-fulfillment fantasies of these stories, and the inevitable fallout of the “happily ever after” endings being different than we imagined them to be. The symmetry between acts one and two is lost on film, but there was still much promise in the idea of a film version. None among my friends would consider it a secret that I have serious reservations about Rob Marshall as a film director, but the source material and the cast performing it were strong enough to compel me to give this film a real shot, now that it’s finally happened! Thankfully, ol’ buddy ol’ pal Margaux was there with me to journey Into the Woods.
Samir: I must admit, hard as it was, I did accept that there was no way to keep all the details of the stage version in the film. The narrator just wouldn’t work in the film, as a walking talking visible character, but I missed that subversion of theatrical construction in having the narrator be a voiceover in the film. I kept wondering if it was Jude Law narrating, but some googling told me it was actually the actor who plays the Baker.
Margaux: There were aspects from the play that didn’t make the movie like, the Old Man/Baker’s Father that character got compounded into Meryl Streep’s Witch, but I was happy about that. Not trying to figure a way to include the Narrator as a visible character, and using James Corden’s lackluster Baker for the voiceover, felt like a cop-out. And I’m barely familiar with the play and not a musical fan.
Samir: The way they worked around that was pretty good though and made sense within the story. As if the voiceover were in a past tense, as a bedtime story to a child. Which once you get to the end, felt appropriate. I was also surprised that I actually thought James Corden made a pretty decent Baker. He had a sincerity about him that played well in this role. It should be noted that his story, is the only one not based on a fairy tale.
Margaux: I thought he played the charming tubby guy with too-smart-and-hot-for-him-in-real-life wife, a tired as trope we’ve seen a bazillion times. Besides that fact, even with the ending being some hamfisted bullshit bedtime story (which is a cop out), it sort of encapsulated my feelings about this movie on the whole: meh. Meryl Streep was doing Meryl Streep In a December Release, and don’t me wrong, I fucking love Meryl Streep but she isn’t the only actress over 60 that can sing and act. COUGH – JESSICA LANG – COUGH. Into the Woods was just sort sat there with some random, one-off fun performances strewn about but generally missing the soul and playfulness of the play version.
Samir: I agree it was a cop-out but I did feel the solution was in keeping with the essence of the show itself, which was what lessons adults and children alike have to learn from these simple tales, and the horrors they also possess. I also thought they didn’t ugly Meryl Streep up enough, but I appreciated what she did with the role. It’s impossible to equal Bernadette Peters as the Witch, but Streep did make several interesting choices on her own to distinguish herself from Peters. I mean, it’s not like this is a stretch for her, it’s just the loving damaged Mom role in a nutshell, but she does know how to play it well.
Margaux: Yeah, we’ve seen it from Streep before and with way less singing.
Samir: I don’t hold that against her or the movie though, it just made her an easy choice for the role as it was. A bigger revelation was Emily Blunt as the Baker’s wife. Sondheim tunes are very tricky and can trip up even the best singers. And even though the tempo was palpably slowed down enough overall to allow the non-singers of the cast (or at least those not previously known for their singing ability) to clearly enunciate all the lyrics, Blunt was quite marvelous in many respects, especially that role’s best song “Moments in the Woods.”
Margaux: I thought the women of Into the Woods absolutely killed it, it’s just a shame that Emily Blunt didn’t have more to do other than follow her moron husband around the woods for the first half of the movie and have her moment sort of undercut by that damn giant.
Samir: At the beginning she is following him around, but he eventually comes to realize that she is just as important to their goals, and she asserts herself into being a partner in the deal rather than standing back as he first instructs her to. The tragedy is that her life is cut short when she realizes she is one of the few who is happy with her “happily ever after” unlike many of the other characters.
Margaux: Other than Jack’s Mother, from the Jack and The Giant Beanstalk fairy tale, played by Tracey Ullman, this is another storyline I could of done without. The kid who plays Jack and they kid from The Babadook should be sent to the island of terrible boys who scream too much.
Samir: Well, it plays into the moral questioning that is dulled in this screen adaptation. What people say and do means a lot in fairy tale worlds where there is little else to go on. The stories are so stripped down that you have to draw conclusions from their actions more readily than in literature that takes it’s time doing it. So we are meant to question the actions of someone like Jack more than we would have before, as the play examined what people do out of desperation in these stories. Even Jack’s mother’s death was less the result of deliberate action and more by accident, which eliminates the point of that action to begin with. So I wasn’t as moved by his story in the film. And that kid ruined my favorite song in the show “Giants in the Sky” so I cannot abide the performance of the young actor playing Jack. Interesting side note- Tracey Ullman said she used to play in the fields as a child, that Marshall used in the scenes of their countryside homestead. That’s something else in the film I was not always thrilled with- the crossover from soundstage to locations felt clumsy, which could sometimes take you out of the movie in a way not intended by the story.
Margaux: I wasn’t thrilled they all but cut out Rapunzel’s storyline, it was probably too dark for The Mouse House. Which was why I was even more surprised, pleasantly, by Johnny Depp’s Wolf. He was perfectly sleazy and creepy.
Samir: Yeah, Rapunzel actually dies in the play, and here she just fades into the background with her “happily ever after” unexamined and totally forgotten. TBH I really hated Johnny Depp’s Big Bad Wolf. The costuming was more “Mad Hatter” than wolf, and overplayed the pederastic side of the wolf’s appetite. The creepiness of the wolf is that his appetite is base and unrepentant, but consistent with a wild animal- it just happens to perfectly translate to sexual appetite as well. I didn’t feel like the wolf was hungry to satisfy anything but his sexual appetite. But I also thought it was a great twist in the play that the same actor who played Cinderella’s Prince also played the Big Bad Wolf, since both are characters driven by their appetites more than good sense.
Margaux: To be fair, Johnny Depp as Big Bad Wolf was dressed like he normally is, a pile of scarves. But I definitely agree with you that I got young-lust vs blood-lust vibe from his character that just didn’t resonate but Depp stop trying to act and/or give a shit years ago so this is just par for his course. I suppose the pleasant surprise was that they kept the character in general because I do like the song and he’s not a bad singer. Was his performance worth the small island he was probably paid to do it? Nah son.
Samir: Pile of scarves, LOL! I instantly imagined him showing up on set, the director just telling him to get in front of the camera as is, and giving the wardrobe mistress the day off. His singing was alright, he clearly took down the high notes and spoke/sang some of the song. But he was an important element as Little Red Riding Hood is crucially woven into the fabric of the whole musical’s book by James Lapine (who adapted it for the screen as well).
Margaux: Johnny Depp is like Tommy Lee Jones, he comes to set in the characters costume because that’s what they were already wearing that day anyhow. Except TLJ comes to set dressed as a Sheriff not like a man who got dressed in the dark.
Samir: Three weeks before and hasn’t changed since. It was nice that Marshall thought to give us a vision of Red inside the wolf’s belly as she sings her song from inside, but in the past tense remembering the moment after the fact. But the execution looked more like a new-agey rebirthing therapy session and thus not worth the effort. One of my other favorite numbers from the show suffers more in the adaptation: “On the Steps of the Palace” doesn’t stick with the playful time jumping within the lyrics, and chooses to change the lyrics to make it a startruck-in-the-moment scene that looks very similar to when Tony meets Maria in the film of West Side Story (which seems less than coincidental since that film is also based on work from Sondheim). What DID work brilliantly was the big comedy number of the show “Agony” where Chris Pine made me a believer in his talent more than ever before. The funniest part of the movie by far.
Margaux: And for me, “Agony” was the most joyful and memorable moment from the entire two movie. It was laugh out loud funny, you could tell both actors were really enjoying it and I felt like that number was the only time they managed the capture the feel of the stage version.
Samir: He just seemed to really get the tone for the role and where it fit into the story. He was just as great with his timing and facial expressions as he woos the Baker’s wife “Any Moment/Moments in the Woods.” That number plays up the idea that the woods are a dark, morally undefined philosophy as well as a physical place where the unknown lurks. Both good and bad can come out of this unknown. He uses it to score with another girl in the woods, but it also makes it possible for the Baker’s wife to be entranced in a way she wouldn’t have back home safe in her cottage. It was like musical horniness- his every line was to convince her that it doesn’t matter, based on where they are, and you believed him as a sleaze milking his royalty.
Margaux: Just hand him some roofies and call that Prince Charming Bill Cosby!
In an huge ensemble cast like Into the Woods, not every single storyline and performance is going to be a hit, but Into the Woods wasn’t as big of an overbloated mess as I thought it would be with Rob Marshall at the helm. There were few memorable moments and despite his best efforts, the ladies of the Woods stole the whole damn thing – save for Pine’s Charming Prince, which is really a role that man was born to play.
Samir: Yes, the integration of these intertwined fairy tales seemed more seamless than I thought it would be on film. Maybe he learned something from the travesty that was Nine. I actually see the possibility for Oscar nominations for a couple folks in this film, which is difficult because, as you said, with such a large cast it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. The emotional highs and lows, and thematic complexity of the OBC production were not totally matched in the film, but I also felt like we heard the brilliant, psychologically astute and endlessly clever lyrics of Sondheim with a clarity that might make new fans of his work. At least I hope. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that someday Company will be the source of a great film. For this one, I give it three stars.
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