What do you get when you tie
together four popular and beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales with an original
story about a baker and his wife told through song? The answer is ‘Into the Woods’ of course, the
pleasant and utterly delightful Tony Award-winning Broadway musical which
debuted in 1986 and now adapted into a movie by ‘Chicago’ director Rob
Marshall. With a talented cast including
Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, James Corden and Johnny Depp, ‘Into
the Woods’ takes us on an imaginative musical journey into the dark, forbidding forest
filled with enchantment, mystery and danger.
The mashup is elegant in its
simplicity: A baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) wanted badly to
have a child, but couldn’t due to a curse placed upon them by a wicked witch
(Meryl Streep). To lift the curse, they
must follow the witch’s instructions and obtain a cow “as white
as milk,” a cape “as red as blood,” hair “as yellow as corn,” and a slipper “as
pure as gold.” In the process they venture
‘into the woods’ and encounter Jack (of Beanstalk fame), the Little Red Riding
Hood, Rapunzel and Cinderella. ‘Into the
Woods’ twists the familiar happy endings of these characters into something a
bit darker (but not so dark as to lose its family-friendly PG rating) and makes
us contemplate these people’s actions and their consequences.
Buoyed by the splendid musical
score from composer Stephen Sondheim, ‘Into the Woods’ delivers
the goods as a gleeful and magical romp into an enchanted realm guaranteed to
please young and old alike. This is
sheer movie escapism, plain and simple, as light and fluffy as cotton candy.
Grade: A
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