Into the Woods is a mash up of different fairy tales rolled into one. Little Red Hiding Hood, Rapunzel, Cinderella, and Jack and the Giant Beanstalk collide to create an overlapping tale. The result? A familiar yet new storyline and a plot that's super fun.
This Broadway musical (with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) first charmed audiences in 1986 and the book by James Lapine won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. And now it has finally hit the big screen.
While it's brimming with meaningful themes like "be careful what you wish for" and how experiences drive us to become different, the messages are very in your face (read: they are clearly announced in the lyrics). Johnny Depp makes a convincingly hungry wolf, in more ways than one, and Meryl Streep simply dominates the screen with her bewitching performance. Chris Pine makes a highly amusing over-the-top prince. The rest of the cast also do a great job.
And yet there's something amiss. This is a musical after all and yet the songs are not exactly magic. Initially they seem moderately catchy and varied, but half way in, they start to feel like the same song over and over again. The only novelty is the lyrics and even then some of the lyrics state the same ideas over and over again. The lack of variety in the tunes and style transform this musical experience into a rather torturous cycle of endless repetition.
Our rating: 6.5 Steps out of 10
Watch the trailer: