Into The Woods

This film was an adaptation of a musical and well known story about lots of other stories. That’s originality out the window for a start.

On a positive note, it was pleasing to the artistic eye, richly painted with both colour and darkness with good use of scenery and costume. Portraying a tragic tale in monotonous, repetitive rhyme,

It was an impressive ability of all the cast to sing such unmelodious and unmemorable songs.

Particularly the very young and talented Daniel Huttlestone (previously in Les Miserables ) born September 17 1999.  Originating from Essex, this boy sang with a strong accent, characteristic of Dickens’s London and suggesting his station in life. Tracey Ullman played his mother.

The film was heavily laden with very big names but with so many characters it was hard to decipher whose story it was.  

Meryl Streep’s amazing ability was put to great use in this film with her spell binding wrath.

 Jonny Dept’s Wolf character was cringe worthy as it bordered on paedophilia.  If he had been a real wolf he may have got away with it but not as a man dressed up as a wolf. The words that spilled from his mouth as he pursued the little girl in a red cape were inappropriate, as was the sinister way he played the role.

Halfway through the film we hit a conclusion and I would’ve been happy to leave it there but then a strange turn of events took us down another path and the film carried on.  In a world of so many distractions who could carry on concentrating on this.

I left the Cinema not understanding whether or not this was for adults or children. I came to the conclusion that it’s one of those artistic pieces you dare not criticize or you will be found out to lack culture.

The film had some good moments, namely Meryl Streep, but all in all it was drawn out for too long.