"Into the Woods" is a modern twist on several of the well known Brothers Grimm fairy tales, intertwining the plots of the stories and exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. This movie starts out as sickeningly sweet with the combination of well known fairy tales but it turns out to be quite annoying with its irritating cliche "be careful what you wish for'" message. It is adapted from the 1986 on stage musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. Actors James Corden and Emily Blunt are the bakers who wish to conceive a child but must break a spell that was cast upon them by the witch. They must locate a cow, a gold slipper, a red cape and a lock of yellow hair to break the curse. They cross paths with Jack (from jack and the beanstalk), Cinderella, red riding hood and Rapunzel. All of these characters set out into the woods on a quest or a wish to make something happen. Although the movie starts out with a sweet beginning and a story line that looks promising, the plot starts to get dark when when it begins to kill off random characters and destroy moral values. I could see they wanted to show us that people are not perfect but it was portrayed in a strange and confusing way. And just when you think it's over it just drags on and on. .
With the exception of one hilarious performance by Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen, who play the two prince charmings, singing about the agony of love, the songs are played out in an unmemorable way and by the end of the film the music starts to sound very dull and humdrum. Although the music was tolerable at the beginning, the repetition drove me crazy with the same melodic tones over and over again. I also really didn't understand why some characters sung/spoke in British accents, with Jack having an especially noticeable cockney accent, while others sung/spoke in clear American accents. I thought more about that during the film than actually trying to figure out was was going on.
