The film opens with the musical number 'I wish', where all the characters are singing what they wish for in life. Soon after The witch, played by the wonderful Meryl Streep, storms into the bakery, telling the couple she can grant their wish of having a child with one condition. Naturally, this condition would be far from easy to meet. She demands they enter the woods and retrieve four items for her, 1. a cow as white as milk 2. a cloak as red as blood 3. hair as yellow as corn and 4. a shoe of pure gold. With this, the Bakers enter the woods on the search for their four items. On their journey, the tales of Little Red, Jack, Rapunzel and Cinderella play out, throwing twists and surprises at every turn and colliding the fairy tales into one wild adventure.
This is one of those musicals where almost every word is sung, pretty much every scene is a song (Most of the time the same song 'Into the woods', just different lyrics) but everything makes perfect sense, trust me.
I'll hand it to director, Rob Marshall, he has created something mind-blowing and surprising, not just your typical 'they lived happily ever after' story. First of all, James Corden CAN sing, like really sing and Emily Blunt, where did that voice come from?! You can tell that some serious hard work has gone into creating this movie and it has paid off. It has also introduced two new talents to Hollywood in the form of Lilla Crawford (Red Riding Hood),who has made her movie debut after starring in 'Annie' on Broadway and Daniel Huttlestone (Jack) ,has taken to the screen again in another musical after previously starring in 'Les Miserables' in 2012.
When I first heard of this movie being released, I honestly didn't know quite what to expect and I still remain shocked now at how the story twisted in the second hour of the film. You think the film is coming to an end with the happy ending, happy marriages, beanstalk destroyed, wolf killed bla bla bla, but then you think again. Hang on, there's another hour left to this film. In that hour, is where the movie strays from your average fairy tale to an unexpected battle and I definitely didn't expect people to be dying!(No I'm not saying who)
Don't get me wrong, I liked the storyline but I think it's the musical aspect of this movie that really won me over. I'm a sucker for musicals, I love them, Mamma Mia, Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, you name it, i've seen it. The lyrics are very clever, captivating and at times you forget they're even singing because they're telling a story and you're so involved in the story, it's like they're talking to you. Does that make any sense?- Made sense in my head.And it's funny, I can't get on with a movie unless it has at least a glimpse of humour and this sure does.
One thing, I think they could have expanded on Cinderella's story a teeny weeny bit more, but I understand that may have made the film like another forty minutes long or something and the twist to her tale was unexpected (again, no I'm not telling)
Overall, I liked it. It was surprising yet stuck to the traditional tales at the same time, well on some of them. As for the acting, well they all deserve Baftas for starters, or at least some kind of high recognition for their outstanding voices. If they don't make a West End/Broadway musical out of this soon then I will!
The movie starred:
Meryl Streep as The Witch
Anna Kendrick as Cinderella
Chris Pine as Prince Charming
Johnny Depp as The Wolf
Lilla Crawford as Red Riding Hood
Emily Blunt as The Baker's Wife
James Corden as The Baker
Mackenzie Mauzy as Rapunzel
Billy Magnussen as Rapunzel's Prince
Daniel Huttlestone as Jack
Tracey Ullman as Jack's mother
Christine Baranski as Cinderella's stepmother
Lucy Punch and Tammy Blanchard as Cinderella's stepsisters
And was directed by Rob Marshall.
What did you guys think? Let me know!
- Zoe x
All image rights belong to google
No comments:
Post a Comment