Into the Woods (2014)

 I had been anticipating watching this Disney movie for a while. Having seen previews of this play in high school, I was eager to finally unravel what it's about and what's so great about it. 

After having sat through the film, I must say... it could've been better. 

The songs are phenomenal and the acting and scenery are great, but the story finds itself in twists and turns, not reaching a clear destination as the characters get lost in the woods...

The movie intersects 4 popular storylines: Cinderella's yearning to go to the royal ball, Jack and his mother yearning for more riches and milk from their cow, Repunzel locked away in her tower yearning for adventure and Little Red Riding Hood yearning to see her grandmother. All four of these characters wish for something, and the movie intersects their journeys into the woods. 

Plus there is a plot twist that ties all these characters together: a childless baker and his wife yearning for a child. A witch (portrayed brilliantly by Meryl Streep) has the power to reverse the curse and give them a child: but only if they give her 4 things to make a potion that would make her beautiful again; each item belonging to each of the aforementioned characters: a golden slipper, a cow as white as milk, hair as yellow as corn, and a cape as red as blood. 

Hence the baker and his wife head onto the woods and find themselves embarking on an adventure unlike they've ever encountered before, running into these characters and trying to find ways to grab these items from them. 

The movie has some wry laughs along the way, and it is relatively entertaining for the first hour or so, but towards the last 40 minutes, it turns its course into a confusing, dark alley that leaves us with nothing clear to hold on to. 

An example of this dark turn is the witch's character development. In the beginning, it seems as though she's greedy and just wants her beauty back at all costs; having the same type of yearning that the other human characters have. Then towards the end, we realize she's lost trust of the world and is trying to make a point about how everything and everyone will fall to its doom at midnight, eventually getting herself turned into a swamp of sticky goo; pretty dramatic. Her demise is well acted, but still at the end, I'm not sure if she's sincere or greedy. The movie could have focused more on why she is so overprotective of Repunzel and why she views the world as such. TLDR: I didn't find her demise touching.

Yet, there is one reprising moment in the film: when Cinderella is running away from the prince. Time freezes and we get a window into her thought process. We realize she's indecisive and is about to make the first major decision of her life: should she be with the prince or not? I thought the song, the mental dialogue, the fact that she would rather not make the decision and leave it to the prince was quite brilliant, and I enjoyed having Cinderella leaving the golden slipper as intentional versus accidental. 

Now for the ending: it doesn't quite do justice to the story. There is a hard question that Little Red Riding Hood asks **SPOILER AHEAD, SKIP PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW**: why should they kill the big lady giant and was that the right thing to do? I mean, Jack had after all lead to her husband's demise after stealing the harp. I felt that a BETTER ending to the movie would've ironically been to make terms with the lady giant and come to a CLEAR moral of the story: It's okay to trust the world sometimes and believe in the goodness of human nature.

If I were to give one more positive prop to the film, it would be to the Baker's wife played by Emily Blunt. I enjoyed how she looses herself in the woods in the last 40 minutes to a certain degree, and then comes back to realize that what she has is more valuable than what she desires. However, the movie had so many angles, so many twists, so much going on, that I feel we didn't get to really delve into the theme of that. 

IN CONCLUSION, the film is NOT a must-see and I do NOT highly recommend it. I would choose another Disney film that brings more clarity to its audience: whether it provides a moral, or simply pure fun. HOWEVER, if you want to see a musical that's well acted and are just looking for a way to kill time on a Saturday night with some Disney characters, Into the Woods might satisfy your palate.