I didn’t know what to expect from Rob Marshall’s new musical Into the Woods; I was not familiar with the play at all, to the point that I had no idea it conglomerated some of Grimm’s fairy tales into a weird little story.  I love the way Marshall staged and directed Chicago, yet I don’t really like his other movies since (Memoirs of a Geisha, Nine, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides).  It’s a Stephen Sondheim source, which is generally a good thing, although he’s better with lyrics and word play than with melody.  And anything with Meryl Streep is worth watching, of course.  Yet I was not excited about seeing it.

It’s an odd experience for me finally coming to something for the first time of which millions of people are already familiar.  Usually I am not so far behind.  When this happens, my opinions often differ from those very familiar with the material.  I saw the movie A Chorus Line in 1985 never having seen the play and I felt, and still do, that the movie is pretty good.  The play’s fans generally hate it.  Same thing for Les Miserables and even Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.  (Obviously I don’t see enough Broadway musicals or their cinematic adaptations — I’ve still never seen either version of Gypsy!).

On to the review.  Into the Woods is an engrossing movie with generally pleasing music.  My first impression is that few of the songs stood out; they seemed — by design — to run into and out of each other to link character and mood rather than work as stand alone songs.  The cast vocalizes those songs beautifully; it’s nice to see a movie cast able to handle the musical demands of a complex score, which has not always been the case with recent musicals.  Meryl Streep is a standout (again), especially when she sings to Rapunzel in the tower; the emotion in her acting helps make the song even better.

Now for what I didn’t like.  I didn’t care for the story at all — fairy tales simply do not interest me, even when put to music.  This story subverts those familiar fables, but it also kills off most of the cast by the final fade-out!  (And I think the play was even more deadly).  I found it strange that sequences which would be center pieces in other films (Cinderella’s dances with the prince, Jack’s encounters with the giants, etc.) occur offscreen and aren’t important to the story at all.  It’s also odd, and rather off-putting, to have some characters utterly contemporary, like the prince (Chris Pine), although he has the film’s best line: “I was raised to be charming, not sincere!”

So, kudos to Marshall and his talented cast for bringing this bizarre concoction to life. It is done with class and some style — although I wish the film had ended after the faux-happy ending halfway through.  I’d had enough by then.  Suffice it so say that this type of film isn’t my cup of tea; I doubt if I’ll ever feel the need to see it again. Entertainment can be a difficult thing to define; this particular piece of entertainment is rather pointless to me.  But fairly well made.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  26 January 2015.