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Into the Woods strains to stay on the path: review

Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick and Emily Blunt lead a starry cast in the movie adaptation of well-loved 1987 Broadway musical Into the Woods.

Into the Woods

2.5 stars

Starring Anna Kendrick, Daniel Huttlestone, James Corden, Emily Blunt, Tracey Ullman, Lilla Crawford, Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Billy Magnussen, Mackenzie Mauzy and Chris Pine. Directed by Rob Marshall. 125 minutes. Opens Dec. 25 at major theatres. PG

Never having seen the well-loved 1987 Broadway musical from composer Stephen Sondheim and writer James Lapine — like Gone Girl, fans of the source material fret about its trip from stage to screen — my first exposure is the onscreen variety.

So I can’t say if the film is a faithful adaptation. But from a multiplex seat rather than an orchestra row, it’s a mixed bag of clever twists on familiar storybook myths, engaging performances and forgettable songs.

Updated Brothers Grimm fairy tales Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel spin an allegory about the disappointments that lurk between wishes and reality and a dark forest where straying from the path has consequences.

Meryl Streep plays the Witch in Into the Woods, the movie adaptation of the stage musical.

It’s all whipped up into a busy and occasionally confusing story that plays out in often tartly amusing ways with some sinister elements. It verges on the creepy in the case of Johnny’ Depp’s leering wolf eyeing Little Red Riding Hood with a sly “what’s in your basket?”

Packed with fairy tale characters and a busy, interwoven story set up with a musical prologue, there’s plenty of fantasy but little chance of leaving the theatre humming any of the songs from the operetta-style score.

The cast is a dynamic lineup of Hollywood names, some with surprisingly good singing voices. Emily Blunt is spot on as the resourceful and determined Baker’s Wife. Meryl Streep is over-the-top delightful as the Witch who turns the plot with her demands that set off a frenzied scavenger hunt in the woods to reverse a curse and grant a wish.

In fact, there’s a lot of wishing going on. The Baker (engaging Brit James Corden, soon to take over from Craig Ferguson as the host of the The Late Late Show) and his Wife are desperate for a child.

Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) wants to go to the King’s festival at the castle. Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) wishes he didn’t have to sell his beloved cow Milky-White. But his mother (Tracey Ullman, terrific here) says the unproductive cow’s got to go.

As for bright-yet-bratty Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), she’s wishing she had the smarts to stay on the proper path to get to Grandma’s.

A curse has put the Baker and his Wife in their parental pickle but the Witch has a plan that can benefit everybody. She’ll lift the curse she placed on the Baker after his father stole magic beans (and she nabbed their baby Rapunzel, now grown up as MacKenzie Mauzy) if they’ll bring her four rare items. And wouldn’t you know it, all of them are somewhere in the woods.

In making his third movie musical, director Rob Marshall isn’t as brash as in his previous musical, the Oscar-winning Chicago and, thankfully, far removed from overstuffed Nine.

Marshall scores a comic hit with the duet “Agony,” which sees Chris Pine’s Prince Charming and his brother, Rapunzel’s Prince (Billy Magnussen) face off over whose torment over their inaccessible sweeties is worse.

Once-upon-a-time characters go bumbling and stumbling in the woods as the Baker and his Wife split up to knock items off the Witch’s list. It’s occasionally hard to follow, but the frantic pace keeps the action moving along with frequent pauses for somebody to start singing. And they do sing a lot.

But once the goodies are gathered, Into the Woods loses its momentum and interest starts to wane. By the time a furious female giant (Frances de la Tour, transformed with awkward CGI) starts stomping around, we feel the weight of the movie.

As Cinderella confesses when she realizes life with Prince Charming may not be all that and a bag of royal chips: “It’s not quite what I expected.”

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