Talkie Tuesday: Into The Woods

"Careful the tale you tell - for that is the spell!"

Hello everyone!

Back to blogging about movies, I had this urge to watch something else out of the fantasy world after finishing Cinderella (the recap and review of which you may read here, from last week), and I had a couple of movies to choose from, but eventually I settled on one that was probably the very best approximation to just what the first one was about, meaning I ended up watching Into The Woods. 

First off, I didn't realize there would be a movie like that until a very good friend of mine showed me the trailer, saying it sounded like something I would enjoy. I watched said trailer (there will be a link down below) and had to agree with her - if nothing else than for one, unmistakable reason:

Meryl Streep.

A SINGING Meryl Streep, might I add.

Now, if you're like me, and you've seen Mamma Mia!, then you'll know she basically aces when it comes to belting out any kind of songs whatsoever. So learning about another movie in which she does the same thing was a no brainer for the end result: watching it!

The movie itself is sort of split into two parts, plot-wise.

In the first, we are told by the narrator (who at this point remains unseen and we think it's probably just someone telling the story at random) that in a village just outside the Woods (this has to be written in capital beginnings because, seriously, that forest is CREEPY, and deserves its own zip code) there lived certain people whose destiny it was to run into one another: a baker and his wife, unable to conceive a child even though they want it badly, a little girl named Red Riding Hood on her way to her grandmother's house in the Woods, a young boy Jack with his mother, empoverished, Cinderella, in love with a faraway prince and yearning for a better life, and a Witch.

I'm putting a capital on there because, you guessed it, that's Meryl Streep's character.

So, back to the story: the Baker and his wife (played by Emily Blunt) want a child, but learn, from the Witch herself, that their house had been cursed because the Baker's father stole magic beans from her, and in return the Witch's mother cursed her - which resulted in a curse on the house in anger. To lift the curse, they need to find a milk-white cow and feed it three things: a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a shoe as pure as gold. Ring any bells? Certainly, the items can be found with the characters I mentioned before.

Stories intertwine, with hilarious results as the bakers search for the items, and in the process we learn just what the other characters are up to: Red is stalked by the Wolf (Johnny Depp himself, thank you very much) and she and her grandmother are rescued by the Baker; Cinderella slips to the ball which will last three days, and keeps running away from her prince (Anna Kendrick is very pretty, and Chris Pine ... Let's just say I died laughing when I saw him posing on top of the wall); and Jack has to sell his cow, Milky White, which he trades for magic beans, plants them, and goes to rob the giants in the other world (this results in the death of one giant, but that's a tale for later).

So, many hilarities later, the items are fed to the cow, she produces milk, and the Witch turns from ugly to beautiful again, lifting her own curse and then everyone receives their happily ever after! The Bakers have a son, Cindy marries her prince, Jack gets the cow back, and Red has a new wolf's cape.

But there's still an hour of the movie left (ALSO, there are Rapunzel and her prince, who is the brother of Cindy's prince in this version, Rapunzel is the Baker's sister who the Witch had stollen and raised as her own daughter ... whew).

In the second half of the movie, we meet Mrs. Giant.

Remember the giant I said died when the beanstalk was cut down? Well, he was Mr. Giant, shall we say so, and the Mrs. is on her way to avenge him.

Before that happens though, we learn the Witch has lost most of her magical powers after the curse was lifted, and so in spite she tosses away the last beans, forcing her mother's spirit to suck her into the otherworld, leaving the others to deal with the giant mess (no pun intended).

Not to mention, their happily ever afters aren't so happy; the Baker is worried about being a father, Cinderella doesn't like royal life, Rapunzel is scared of the outside world, etc.

Most of them band together to fight off Mrs. Giant, although Rapunzel and her prince had run off previously; unfortunately, after an adulterous moment in the Woods with Cinderella's Prince, the Baker's wife tragically slips off a cliff. The rest of the gang do end up fighting Mrs. Giant off, but Cinderella and the Prince part ways, and the others are similarly bereft of family members from the rampage, or simply disillusioned.

"I'll always love the maiden who ran away."

"And I'll always love the faraway prince."

Prince and Cinderella

In the end, we realize the narrator is in fact the Baker, telling the story of what happened to his son, with the remaining survivors gathered around him; Jack, Red and Cinderella had agreed to move into one house together, and form a family of sort.

Thus, the movie comes to an end on a sort of bitter-sweet note, but in general, I really liked it. It had spunk, it was funny, there were Grimm fairytales mixed all over, and the Witch was bouncing in and out like a crazy hamster monkey.

No joke.

Since this is a musical, there are obviously songs woven into the story, and everyone performs them remarkably well - there are several memorable numbers, but down below I enclose my personal favourite, and the one which made me cry with laughter.

And, always remember the main message of the movie: children will listen to everything their elders tell them - good or bad!

xx

*images and videos not mine