Into the Woods: A Tasty Treat For the Holidays

by Sandra Olmsted

With Into the Woods, an adaptation of the Broadway musical, director Rob Marshall whips up a tasty treat for the holiday. Dashes of wit and Brothers Grimm darkness complement the equal parts talented cast, solid musical source material, and, finally, imaginative staging for film.    The story combines several favorite fairy tales into a new story with interwoven threats between the stories, as through all these familiar characters live in the same community. At the center of the fairy-tale-based musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, the Baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) long for a child, and then the neighborhood witch (Meryl Streep) informs them that she has cursed the Baker’s family for something his father stole from her garden and offers the couple a way to have child.

The witch tell them to go into the woods and find a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold. The witch, however, seems to have another use for the ingredients she asks the Baker and his wife to procure. Fortunately or unfortunately, for the Baker and his wife, Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) who is famed for a giant beanstalk, Little Red Ridinghood (Lilla Crawford), Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy), and Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) all live in or near the woods.

Although the musical lacks one song that stands out, the title comes from a phrase in many of the songs as all the characters eventually travel into the woods.    The newly created central story of the Baker and his wife needing something from each of these main characters in another fairy-tale delightfully holds the expanded, combined story together and provides both familiar and surprisingly revised versions of the supplemental fairy-tales.

Red Ridinghood, of course, must have a Wolf (Johnny Depp) and grandmother (Annette Crosbie), and Cinderella a wicked stepmother (Christine Baranski) and preening, cruel stepsisters (Tammy Blanchard, Lucy Punch). Rapunzel’s Prince (Billy Magnussen) and Cinderella’s Prince (Chris Pine) are brothers in this kingdom. Jack tries to please his mother (Tracey Ullman) by stealing from a giant.    Because the witch cannot touch any of the ingredients needed for her spell, which has nothing to do with removing the Baker’s curse, complications arise. While the question of whether the Baker and his wife can trust the witch seems the most important, the giant’s wife (Frances de la Tour ) eventually wants revenge for her husband’s death.

Although the musical lacks one song that stands out, the title comes from a phrase in many of the songs as all the characters eventually travel “into the woods.” While there isn’t one song that stand for the whole film, each character seems to get a moment or two in the spotlight and a few big numbers, with Streep getting the best ones or maybe making them the most memorable with her performance. Her songs include “Last Midnight,” “Children Will Listen,” and “Stay With Me.” The princes mock bodice rippers in the song “Agony” and in their prancing and posing dance. Other notable performances of songs go to Huttlestone’s rendition of “Giants in the Sky” and Crawford’s version of “I Know Things Now.” While the pace moves quickly from one song, storyline, and plot twist to the next, Marshall never makes the audience’s head spin with so much going on and keep the story easy enough to follow for children.      The film also has less violence and less emphasis on the more adult themes such as infertility than the Broadway version so young children can easily be introduced to musical theater via Marshall’s Into the Woods. Even the foray into the wolf’s stomach isn’t terribly scary.

The computer generated images, atmospheric sound stages, and outdoor setting are masterfully, seamlessly combined. Expect that those responsible for the visual and aural look and sound of the film will get some Oscar nominations, such as director of photography Dion Beebe, production designer Dennis Gassner, costume designer Colleen Atwood, editor Wyatt Smith, visual effects supervisor Matt Johnson, and Stephen Sondheim for music and lyrics. Marshall, who directed Chicago, the 2002 hit musical, returns to his stride with Into the Woods, and his direction may also get an Oscar nod.    Streep standout performance may well also get a deserved nod from the Academy, and while all the performances are stellar, only Anna Kendrick as Cinderella seems poise for a possible nod.

Into the Woods, a delightful family-oriented version of the darker Broadway musical, can delight any age audience member and is worth seeing in the theater. The film can also serve as a nice introduction to live theater for young children will a reasonable attention span. Into the Woods, a Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release, opens Christmas Day, and it runs a sprightly 124 minutes and is rated for thematic elements, fantasy action and peril, and some suggestive material.

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