{"id":1586,"date":"2015-05-08T16:54:34","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T20:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1586"},"modified":"2024-05-25T14:10:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T18:10:45","slug":"into-the-woods-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1586","title":{"rendered":"Into the Woods-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Into the Woods-2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Rob Marshall<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #241<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"70305948\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed May 8, 2015<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n

Based on the stage production of the same name, Into the Woods (2014) is a feature-length Disney film that incorporates several different fairy tales into the main story.<\/p>\n

The film is a fantasy musical with numerous songs performed by the cast, featuring a large ensemble of seasoned actors.<\/p>\n

The classic fairy tales are modern versions of Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Cinderella.<\/p>\n

The action mainly revolves around a baker and his wife (James Cordon and Emily Blunt) who are sad and lonely because they cannot conceive a child due to a long-ago curse put upon the baker\u2019s family by a witch- played by Meryl Streep.<\/p>\n

Circumstances surrounding the baker\u2019s father caused the once beautiful witch to be turned ugly. The witch offers a bargain to the baker and his wife- if they bring her four items (a white cow, a red cape, yellow hair, and a gold slipper) for a special potion, she will lift the curse, enabling them to conceive a child and live happily ever after.<\/p>\n

This prompts the couple into the dark forest to obtain the requested items. From this point, the couple intersects with other characters from the fairy tales as they all question various aspects of their lives.<\/p>\n

There are subsequent stories- the witch is Rapunzel\u2019s adoptive mother and keeps her locked in a tower to prevent her from being hurt by the world.<\/p>\n

Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) escapes her taunting stepsisters and attends a ball only to flee when noticed by the handsome prince (Chris Pine).<\/p>\n

Jack attempts to sell beans to provide food for his mother- and Little Red Riding Hood brings sweets to her Grandmother but is confronted by the Big, Bad, Wolf (Johnny Depp), a strange Woman Giant is stomping through the forest searching for Jack.<\/p>\n

All these stories revolve around the baker and his wife\u2019s efforts to retrieve the witch’s requests.<\/p>\n

The production and art direction in the film is great. I love the dark, gloomy forest, which translates so well on the screen and gives the magical effect of a mysterious, secret forest.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed the songs quite a bit- especially the catchy \u201cInto the Woods\u201d. However, some of the songs are quite one-dimensional and bland and not discernible from each other, let alone memorable.<\/p>\n

The duet of the Prince\u2019s, \u201cAgony\u201d is silly and useless to the plot, with gyrations, and dance moves.<\/p>\n

Meryl Streep- dynamic in anything she appears in again steals the show as the vile witch turns beautiful at the end. She has a fantastic solo number mid-story, entitled \u201cStay with Me\u201d.<\/p>\n

One drawback I found with the film is, at times it drags a bit and I was not sold on the casting of Anna Kendrick as Cinderella.\u00a0 Something about her performance was lacking, perhaps she was not as sympathetic or convincing as another actress might have been.<\/p>\n

Also, I would have enjoyed seeing Johnny Depp as the Wolf be more prominently featured and a larger role for the Woman Giant. As integral as she is to the plot, it was tough to get a clear glimpse of her face let alone anything more substantial.<\/p>\n

An entertaining feast of fairy tales immersed in one film, Into the Woods (2014) has some compelling moments but lost opportunities that bring it far from the reaches of a masterpiece level.<\/p>\n

A solid film, but not a great film.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Supporting Actress-Meryl Streep, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Into the Woods-2014 Director Rob Marshall Starring Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep Scott’s Review #241 Reviewed May 8, 2015 Grade: B Based on the stage production of the same name, Into the Woods (2014) is a feature-length Disney film that incorporates several different fairy tales into the main story. The film is a fantasy musical with … Continue reading Into the Woods-2014<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2870,4650,3584,4652,384,2901,201,4649,3170,2243,47,4648,4651],"tags":[78,2874,4655,3587,4657,385,2907,257,4654,1305,2183,250,4653,4656],"class_list":["post-1586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-films","category-anna-kendrick","category-billy-magnussen","category-chris-pine","category-christine-baranski","category-disney-films","category-emily-blunt","category-fantasy-films","category-james-corden","category-jon-bernthal","category-meryl-streep","category-musicals","category-rob-marshall","category-tracey-ullman","tag-2014-movie-reviews","tag-anna-kendrick","tag-billy-magnussen","tag-chris-pine","tag-christine-baranski","tag-disney-films","tag-emily-blunt","tag-fantasy-films","tag-james-corden","tag-johnny-depp","tag-meryl-streep","tag-musicals","tag-rob-marshall","tag-tracey-ullman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1586"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20250,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions\/20250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}