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| (Disney) |
Is
Rob Marshall a one-trick pony? His latest musical, Into the Woods, ostensibly gets the important stuff right. Despite
being fashioned by Disney for family audiences, this adaptation retains the
original production’s darker themes and plot twists, and consistently maintains
an admirable faithfulness. But while the innovative and unique ideas
successfully translate to screen, Marshall is unable to bring along the original
Sondheim magic. He unwisely returns to his Chicago-style
of staging and filming, one that favors fluidity over grandeur. It works
alright in the film’s first half, alive with rich performances from Emily
Blunt, Meryl Streep and scene-stealers Chris Pine and Christine Baranski – but,
like the musical, there’s an abrupt restart in action and tone. Marshall is
overmatched by the transition, resorting to the same tricks and unsurprisingly
yielding fast-diminishing returns. Even in the opening minutes, Marshall can’t
quite thread the musical’s many disparate parts together, an issue magnified as
the film’s excessive running-time begins to wear. With impressive production design
and a collection of actors at the top of their game, Into the Woods never completely falls apart. But it never completely
works, either. C