Though not many people know it now,
Stephen Sondeim's 1987 Broadway Musical Into the Woods was a
big hit. It won three Tony Awards but was overshadowed by the great success of
the new musical The Phantom of the Opera. In 2014, Disney released
their film version of Into the Woods.
The film opened in second place at the box
office behind the third Hobbit film, giving it the highest
opening weekend for a film version of a Broadway musical. At the time of this
review, Into the Woods has three Academy Award nominations,
and the American Film Institute named it one of the eleven greatest movies of
2014. The film stars James Corden as The Baker, Emily Blunt as The Baker's
Wife, and Meryl Streep as The Witch.
SUMMARY
The Baker and his wife desperately want to have a
child but are unable to. One day, though, a witch storms into their bakery and
informs them why they have not had any offspring: a curse. Years ago, the
Baker's mother was with child, and she desired to have greens ("greens,
greens, nothing but greens"). So the mother sent her husband to the
witch's garden next door, telling him to take some vegetables for her. The
witch caught him, but the two struck a deal: the man could take the vegetables
if the witch was given his unborn baby. But the Baker's father also secretly
stole some magic beans, which caused the witch's mother to smite her with the
curse of ugliness. So the witch cursed the Baker's father and mother, making it
so their family tree would never bear any children.
Yet the witch offers a way for the Baker and his wife
to undo the curse. They must bring her the following ingredients before
midnight in three days: the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the
hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold.
Meanwhile, Little Red Riding Hood sets out for her
granny's house (with a full basket of sweets and bread), Cinderella visits her
mother's grave, and a boy named Jack is instructed by his mother to sell their
cow, Milky White.
The Baker goes into the woods and sees Red Riding
Hood wearing the cape as red as blood, though he is not successful in obtaining
it. Soon, the Baker's wife shows up, against his wishes. However, she convinces
her husband that they will need to work together to find the ingredients. The
Baker and his wife run into Jack, with his cow. In exchange for the cow (that
happens to be as white as milk), the Baker and his wife give the boy five of
the six magical beans.
Eventually, through many chaotic adventures and
accidents, the Baker and his wife find each item on the witch's list. The
ingredients make a spell that reverses the curse of ugliness on the witch, and
she undoes her curse on the Baker's house, causing the Baker's wife to become
pregnant. All the characters have their happy endings!
But wait, the story hasn't finished! Jack's mother tossed
the magic beans away, and they grew into a giant beanstalk. Jack climbs the
bean stalk and finds giants in the sky. He soon begins stealing treasure from
them. As his climbs down, a giant chases him, but Jack begins to chop down the
stalk. The giant falls to his death. This eventually causes the giant's wife to
be very angry. She comes down to find Jack, though she causes earthquakes
throughout the kingdom, which throws everything into chaos.
The characters begin blaming each other for the
problems, but they eventually decide to work together in order to defeat the
giant.
CONTENT
While violence is present in Into the Woods,
arguably the worst of it is off-screen. These off-screen moments include the
Baker cutting open a wolf's stomach, Cinderella's stepsisters having their toes
and heels cut off (for the purpose of fitting into Cinderella's famous
slipper), and a woman falling down a cliff (we only see her hand lose its grip
on a branch). When one stepsister's toes are cut off, we see a drop of blood. A
woman is pushed and hits her head on a stump, causing death. Both stepsisters
are also blinded by some birds, though the camera cuts away before we see
anything. The witch grows a patch of thorns in the path of a prince, which
blinds him (the audience does not actually see the blinding, but the scarred
and scratched eyes are seen later). One character is hit in the forehead with a
stone and falls down dead.
When speaking of her robbed garden, the witch
compares being stolen from to being raped (she isn't, but she uses the
metaphor). There are several kisses throughout the film, usually not between
married couples. Cinderella's stepsisters wear dresses with short skirts, and
several female costumes partially show their chests. During a song about their "agony," two princes open their shirts to reveal part of their chests. Also, the Baker's wife
meets Cinderella's prince (her husband) in the woods. The prince seduces the
woman into kissing him a few times. However, the woman realizes that what she
did was wrong (even though she does believe it made her
marriage to the Baker "mean more"), while the prince is quite
unapologetic for his adulterous seduction. Also, when Little Red Riding
encounters the Wolf, some reviewers have felt it was meant to be sexual
seduction of the girl by the wolf. I did not get that feeling (to me, it was
just a hungry wolf wanting to eat human flesh, young and old), but parents will
want to note the possibility.
The profane language is sparse, having two clear uses
of God's name.
In one song, a man and a woman encourage children to
decide for themselves what is good is right. They also tell them giants can be
good and witches can be right. But this moral relativism is not clearly found
anywhere else in the film.
Two characters appear as ghosts, Cinderella's mother
and the Baker's father. The latter could have been more of a vision, but the
Baker talks to his father, who encourages his son to not make the same mistakes
he did (i.e. abandoning his son). A dead woman appears to her husband, though
this also was probably meant to be a memory, rather than a ghost. Also, a witch
uses witchcraft to raise a cow from the dead.
While Into the Woods has some
clearly visible problems, I felt that there were a lot of good things to be
taken from the movie. For one thing, the movie poster's catchphrase of "be
careful what you wish for," while never explicitly spelled out, is shown
and pushed through the entire film. Characters wish for things, and they get
them...but they realize their wishes weren't quite what they expected (not to
mention that they all come with consequences). In reality God has given us the
ability to wish for things, but we need to be careful of these wishes, for a
few reasons. We need to be sure that these wishes have not become idols, taking
the place of God, and we also need to examine the affects our wishes will have
on us and others.
Earlier I mentioned the prince's encounter with the
Baker's wife. As I said, the woman feels it makes her marriage mean more. But
she does see that what she did was wrong, and she seemed to me to be
apologetic. This does not, in any way, condone her actions. While
sin is wrong, all people are sinners. The important thing when we sin is that
we repent to the LORD for our wrongdoing.
The witch laments, through song, that "children
won't listen," but later she changes her tune. "Children may not
obey/but children will listen." She warns the listener to be careful what
they say because children will listen (being defined differently than
"obey"). This could be a caution to parents to be certain of the
things they say to their children, and later the witch's song warns parents to
be wary of the path their children take. Children do need to
obey, but Proverbs 22:6 instructs fathers and mothers to train up their
children in the way of the LORD, so both parent and child are responsible.
I loved the strong emphasis on fatherhood in the
movie. It showed the importance of a father in the absence of the Baker's
father and his own choice to stay with his infant child. Seldom do we find such
strong examples of this today.
The acting was just marvelous! James Corden and Meryl
Streep were stunning in their roles (as the Baker and the witch), and Emily
Blunt was great as the Baker's wife. Also, Daniel Huttlestone, Anna Kendrick,
and Lilla Crawford did well portraying Jack, Cinderella, and Red Riding Hood.
Also, the songs are quite beautiful (and some of them
are even fun). I especially enjoyed the songs Prologue: Into the Woods, Stay
With Me, Last Midnight, and Children Will Listen.
Stephen Sondheim (writer and musician behind the Broadway play) did wonderful
with this masterpiece songs.
While there are many good things to take away
from Into the Woods, viewers should also be careful of the darker
aspects. The brief adultery, of course, and the call at the end to decide for
yourself what is right.
While there are some murky parts to this film, I was
pleased with the morals that did shine through. Still, don't
let this film's PG rating deceive you: it is not a film for children. Based on
the maturity of your children, I believe ages thirteen and older could handle
the movie, though they will need to think through some anti-biblical worldviews
put forth. This was a great movie, and one of the best from 2014, I would say.
If you get the chance, I hope you enjoy Into the Woods as much
as I did.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Length: 124 minutes
Rating: PG (
Director: Rob Marshall
Producers: Rob Marshall, Marc Platt, John DeLuca, Callim McDougall
Music: Stephen Sondeim (lyrics and score)
Year of release: 2014
Primary audience: Teens, adults
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