Movie Reviews: Into the Woods and Begin Again

Into the Woods (2014) is the second movie I've seen based on a Stephen Sondheim musical (the other being Sweeny Todd), and I've decided I don't much like Sondheim's musical sensibilities.  He's very fond of recitative (talk singing, basically) which is one of my least favorite aspects of opera and musical theater.  And even the main song productions didn't hook me (with the exception of the princes-on-the-waterfall scene... "Agony!").  None of this is to imply that it's a bad film, just that it's hard to like a musical if you don't like the songs, and I didn't much like the songs.

But if you don't mind recitative, and if you like Sondheim's music, then you'll probably love this film.   First off, it looks fantastic-- the costume and set design is out of this world.  On top of that, the acting is uniformly superb.  My favorite performance was by Lilla Crawford, who played Little Red Riding Hood as a cad, but with a really powerful singing voice.  Emily Blunt's lovely voice was also a pleasant surprise.  Story-wise the movie is a bit crowded-- with so many fairy tale characters demanding screen-time, it's inevitably jumbled.  But the story is also crammed full of interesting themes of courtship, coming of age, the relationship between your children when they're young and after they've grown up.  There's a lot to like about this film.  If I liked the music more, I might consider seeing it again.


Begin Again (2013) is a very different kind of musical.  Kiera Knightly and Mark Ruffalo bring some serious star power to this follow-up to Once from director John Carney.  Like Carney's previous film, this one is about two down-on-their-luck music makers who team up to help each other find redemption and realize their dreams.  But unlike Once, this film focuses on those who once had musical success and then lost it, or those who've lost loved ones to musical success while being passed over themselves.

I have two big issues with this film.  Once again, I couldn't get into the music.  This bothers me even more than with Into the Woods, because I don't expect to like songs from stage musicals (they're just not my thing).  But this film, with all its decrying of mainstream music, managed to produce a bunch of bland, boring songs that were theoretically within a genre I like.  The other problem was the star power itself.  The characters are schleppy losers, but the actors feel like Hollywood superstars throughout-- they never look anything other than gorgeous, they never lack room-crushing charisma-- they're distracting.  The story itself is perfectly pleasant, if a bit shallow, but I have a hard time recommending this one.