We saw Into the Woods tonight, finally... it was gratifying to see a full house for a film musical on a Sunday night! We liked the movie and definitely recommend it. I thought the cast was uniformly excellent and sang Sondheims difficult music very well... frankly, it is the best-sung musical I can remember in a long time. I especially liked Anna Kendricks and James Corden, and of course Meryl Streep did a great job with the Witch. I had no issues with the edits, since I felt they served the purpose of a movie, as opposed to a play. My only two quibbles (not really spoiler-y): 1) I think Marshall directs around a lot of the humor in the play... the movie is still funny, but rarely flirts with the hilarity or lunacy that the stage version can achieve. 2) The woods werent particularly magical, or particularly menacing, or really much of anything. There were some nice trees that people climbed on here and there, and a lovely waterfall that serves as a set for the funniest number. Overall however, the forest sets just felt gloomy to me, and the movie really lacked a sense of place. Those things aside, I liked the film a lot, and look forward to seeing it again. Since a movie is by definition a very different thing from a play, perhaps I will see it differently and even more positively over time. The audience around me seemed to run the gamut from all-out loving it, to utter bafflement. So obviously, your mileage may vary. :)
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 03:18:00 +0000
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