On Christmas Eve Marilyn and I took Sean and Tashena to see the first screening of Into the Woods because I literally could not wait another moment to see it. Stephen Sondheim's Tony award winning musical is one of my very favorites and I have been waiting for months and months for the movie adaptation to come out. The story incorporates well-known fairy tales, such as "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Jack and the Beanstalk," and "Rapunzel," to demonstrate that actions can sometimes have unintended consequences and wishes do not always turn out happily ever after. It is a very faithful adaptation and its strength is in the wonderful cast. Meryl Streep is amazing as the Witch and, although I was not especially impressed with her singing in Mamma Mia, I really liked her renditions of "Stay With Me" and "The Last Midnight." I think Anna Kendrick is absolutely perfect as Cinderella and I especially loved her performance of "On the Steps of the Palace." When I found out that Johnny Depp was playing the Wolf, I may or may not have squealed because, in my opinion, he was made for this role. I was positively giddy during his version of "Hello, Little Girl." My favorite song in the stage musical has always been "Agony" sung by Cinderella's Prince and Rapunzel's Prince. I was a bit surprised that Chris Pine not only pulled it off but, along with Billy Magnussen (who I was not familiar with), he actually turned it into one of the highlights of the movie. Pine is hilarious as the prince who was raised to be charming not sincere and I loved all of his facial expressions and all of his strutting around. The entire cast is well suited to their roles and Rob Marshall does a great job staging all of the song and dance numbers, especially the aforementioned "Agony" in a waterfall. I really love the production design, making the woods seem much darker and more foreboding than they are usually portrayed on stage, and I think the costumes are fantastic, especially those worn by Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters. My only complaint is that Rapunzel's storyline becomes rather ambiguous (it is pretty bleak in the musical) at the end but it is a small deviation. Overall, I think it is a fabulous adaptation and fans of the musical will probably love it as much as I do. I highly recommend it; in fact, I will probably see it again!
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