Movie Review: Into the Woods

Into the Woods is a combination of Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Rapunzel adapated from a Broadway musical. All of these fairy tales are woven together by a baker and his wife who was cursed by the witch, played by Meryl Streep. The baker and his wife can’t have any children unless they lift a curse placed by the witch. On the blue moon, they must accumulate a white cow, a ruby red cape, golden shoes, and long blonde hair, all possessed by the aforementioned fairy tale characters. About halfway through, it appeared that there would be a Disney ending where all would be well with the world and everyone would live happily ever after, but then things took a darker turn when a giant invades the village in search of Jack, who killed her husband.
There was a lot that I liked about the movie. There were strong acting performances by several of the actors. There were good action scenes and I liked some of the songs. The overall plot was interesting. Where the movie falters is that it is too long. There are many slow spots in the movie. It seemed as if the director wanted to include every scene from the musical, but I thought it would have benefited by dropping a few of the songs, since that was generally when the slow spots occurred. In the end, it was a decent movie, but it didn’t quite live up to expectations.