Into the Woods Official Movie Thread — Page 201

I wonder why they never thought of JLO for the witch?

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I think most people consider a film that makes money a hit.

"You decide what's right. You decide what's good."

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"Everyone thinks that Patricia is a lock for the Best Featured Actress Oscar but here's what I say: Don't be so sure about that."

There is no race. After the BAFTA passed on nominating her, I would not be shocked if somehow she is left out when Oscar nominations are announced later this week. I know it's hard to think outside of the Broadway bubble, but Into the Woods is not the runaway hit most of you want it to be. Every person I spoke to was very mixed. Many of whom all mentioned other cast members as being the standout.

Regardless, Arquette is unstoppable, and rightfully so. As far as I'm concerned, all four acting races are locked up even before nominations are out. Keaton, Moore, Simmons, and Arquette.

I know it's hard to think outside of the Broadway bubble, but Into the Woods is not the runaway hit most of you want it to be.

It isn't?

So how would you classify a movie that has grossed over $100 million in less than a month?

Exactly! Talk about living in a bubble! Clueless much?

"Many people have gone to see it, and come out either mixed or not particularly caring for it. The only true fans of the film are theatre fanatics, not the general movie going public."

How do you figure this? I've seen people complaining about it but I've also seen plenty of non-theater fanatics saying they loved it. Check out Twitter, Instagram, etc and you'll see plenty of very positive reactions. It's not accurate to say that all people who are not theatre fanatics leave this movie negative or mixed on it.

The amount of money the movie has made isn't an opinion. It's a fact.

If you don't like this film, that's fine. But don't fool yourself about facts either. That's bubble-dweller talk.

Now back to my opinion ... haha ...

I too have coworkers who never saw the play but at least went into it knowing it was BASED on a play and not expecting a Frozen/Shrek fairytale mashup. They both loved it. Also bought the soundtrack, and they ask me questions about what other Sondheim shows should they listen to.

That makes me so friggin happy.

They were also stunned when I told them he wrote the lyrics to West Side Story. And it reminds me of how "weird" and unusual the score was to the population at large in the late 1950s ...

... how Mary Rodgers, who attended opening night, remembered watching people walk out of the theatre during the show ...

A few years later when the film came out, the soundtrack went on to become one of the highest selling soundtracks of all time (to this day).

Seeing this "strange" and "weird" movie come out in today's world, written by the same man who has endured more than his fair share of walk-outs during his illustrious career, makes me so happy to watch the public do everything from freak out to boo it to embrace it and love it ...

This is nothing new to Stephen Sondheim ... but it sure is a nice little bit of history repeating itself.

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I get a kick out of going to Twitter and Tumblr and doing a search for "Billy Magnussen" and "Into the Woods". There are TONS of posts, mostly positive, and a lot of buzz and fan involvement among young people. That's great. It's certainly gotten Billy a lot of attention.

@Sarah, You are obviously young (and in love with Billy) so I doubt my words will mean much, but I must tell you this for the future:

Sometimes, People aren't all going to like the same things on the same level. It's not because they are trying to hurt the film or "take away other people's joy". It's simply because they just happened to not be taken by it for whatever reason. Sometimes people disagree on things and that's okay. It's a discussion thread, not a "Praise the mighty ITW" thread. I'm happy you liked it. I more or less liked it also. However, there are people on this board and in this world who didn't like it for reasons othe than "This is a musical?" "these songs sound the same" and so on. They have valid reasons for not liking it and them commenting is in no way "taking away joy". :)

Updated On: 1/12/15 at 07:37 PM

I think that the major problem is that Rob Marshall is not a good director and whoever did the marketing should be shot dead.
Rob Marshall made Chicago and it was great, but he may never have another great film ever again. There were total WTF moments throughout the entire film. I would have hated this film too if i hadn't already been in love with the source material.
I thought that it was a good adaption, but everything great about the second act was cut up to hell. The entire story lost any power behind it and it became completely nonsensical.
That combined with the emotion less studio sounding singing and the tiptoeing around anything related to death made for a movie with zero emotional punch.

Yes, I'm sure Disney is very upset with their marketing for the movie. You know, it only helped them turn a very faithful film adaptation of a dark Sondheim fairytale musical into a holiday tentpole that passed the $100 mil mark, thus making double the $50 mil they originally invested, within three weeks of its release. Yup, they should fire that terrible marketing team!
And God, Rob Marshall clearly sucked. He only managed to turn in an INTO THE WOODS adaptation with confidence. I hated how he cast actors perfectly suited for their roles--from Lucinda and Cinderella's Mom to the Witch and the Baker's Wife--and was able to capture beautifully sung performances from them. I hated how he took a musical in which characters basically sing about things once they happened (in other words, a very uncinematic show) and made each number naturally emerge from the plot in inventive, seamless ways. Oh, and he really screwed up by effectively making people who thought they knew INTO THE WOODS front and back, re-discover the piece and find humor, pathos, heartbreak and joy in the most unexpected moments.

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I agree about the second act being too chopped up. I would have taken out "It Takes Two" (which really doesn't advance the plot at all and could have been replaced with dialogue) and kept "No More." Cutting out that number really truncated the whole central conflict of the story, e.g., will the child of a bad parent end up being just like the parent? As it is we don't get enough of the Baker's fear to feel anything when he talks to his father about screwing up. It's too brief, and to me comes off as contrived.

And "No More" is such a beautiful song, better in a lot of ways than "Children Will Listen" which comes across as rather platitudinous (if that's a word.)

"It Takes Two" is cute but disposable. I enjoyed Blunt's and Corden's performance, but would have happily waited until the 'extended edition' to see it if it meant 'No More' was going to be in the movie.

The other major problem is the timing between the happy ending and the giant showing up. In the play it's a year; more than long enough for the characters to both get their happy endings and become bored and dissatisfied with them. At the beginning of Act II we see that, despite getting everything they wished for, the characters still want more. That makes them human and relatable.

In the movie, the giant shows up while Cinderella is still in her wedding gown. There's no time for ANY of the characters to even settle into their new lives, let alone wish for anything else. It's too quick, too jarring; it doesn't seem to have a point. Cinderella's Prince strays before his wedding night. The Baker's wife succumbs to temptation before the baby's gotten its first tooth. All this makes the characters seem fickle and shallow, not human. Not relatable.

The bummer is that we know Marshall never filmed the other songs, so there's no chance we'll see a "director's cut" with 'No More' in there, or any time lapse between the happy endings and the appearance of the giant. A pity, because I would be interested to see how the inclusion of those elements would alter (and perhaps improve) the story. I wonder if it's too late to do reshoots...