Into the Woods (2014)

Thrilling. Amy and I loved the adaptation of the popular musical intertwining four fairy tales into one darkly comic operetta (more singing than talking). With show-stopping performances, it's musically excellent and artistically imaginative. In the (urban) dictionary for "chewing the scenery," there should be a video of Meryl Streep (last blogged in The Homesman) as The Witch. Jack, who was with us, liked it but found it too long.

And that singing! To my discriminating ear, almost all delivered each note and difficult interval spot-on, particularly Anna Kendrick (most recently in The Company You Keep) as Cinderella, Lilla Crawford (in her feature film debut after playing the title role in the 2012 Broadway revival of Annie) as Little Red Riding Hood, Daniel Huttlestone (Gavroche in Les Misérables) as Jack (and the Beanstalk), Emily Blunt (last in The Edge of Tomorrow) as The Baker's Wife, Chris Pine (most recently in Horrible Bosses 2) as Cinderella's Prince, and Streep.

I don't mean to denigrate the others: James Corden (last in Begin Again, and soon to take Craig Ferguson's hosting job on CBS) as The Baker and narrator, Christine Baranski (returning here to her comic roots from 87 episodes of Cybill in the 1990s before 124 episodes and counting of the drama The Good Wife; she was also in Chicago (2002) and Mamma Mia! (2008)) as Cinderella's stepmother, Tracy Ullman (most recently in I Could Never Be Your Woman) as Jack's harried mother, and Billy Magnussen (new to me) as Rapunzel's Prince are quite capable of carrying a tune. Lucy Punch (last in Bad Teacher) displays her considerable slapstick talents as one of the stepsisters and Johnny Depp (most recently in The Lone Ranger) is a revelation as the Big Bad Wolf.

Director Rob Marshall (last blogged for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) brings his style to the show with the help of Tony-award-winning playwright James Lapine adapting his own play to the screen in an utterly cinematic way. My discriminating ear is also very grateful that the performers were permitted to overdub their singing in studios, unlike in Les Mis.

Although I have great respect for Stephen Sondheim, I'm not all that familiar with his shows after A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962). I should really brush up, but it was fun learning the story for the first time with the Christmas day audience (and I didn't miss the songs from the original show omitted here). It was a return to our tradition of seeing a musical movie on December 25, which we began, I think, with Dreamgirls in 2006, and have been sidetracked many times.

Here is a link to stream the entire one hour and 37 minute soundtrack.

I know many folks have brought their kids to the show, but it does have some scary bits (taken from Grimm's fairy tales, after all) so it's not for the very young. That said, this will be good on the big screen if you can swing it. Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 71% and audiences at 59 are not in agreement with us, but plenty more are voting with their wallets--it was second at the box office its opening weekend.