”Into the Woods” is a fantasy musical directed and produced by Rob Marshall, released in 2014. The original screenplay was created by Stephen Soundheim in 1986 and directed by James Lapine. Leading cast members are Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Emily Blunt, Tracey Ullman, Christine Baranski, Anna Kendrick and Chris Pine. A fairy tale for adults, ”Into the Woods” intertwines several stories, such as “Cinderella”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Rapunzel” and “Jack and the Beanstalk”.
The musical captures new facets of the generic fairy tale, while the association of popular fairy tale characters under the same sky produces confusion and curiosity. They are brought together by the Baker and his wife. The couple was doomed not to have children by a witch who had previously cast a spell on their house. The evil witch had cursed them on account of a faulty deed done by the Baker’s father. To lift the curse, the two lovers were asked to solve a very, VERY difficult quest: to gather four objects during three nights: “A cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, a hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold.” Thus, everything comes to life and the plot starts to unravel.
Characters from different stories are here tied up to work hand in hand for a greater good. As a matter of fact, this usually happens in traditional fairy tales… Here, Rob Marshall demolishes the stereotypes and intrigues the public. People are fighting for a good indeed, but with an egocentric inclination. The meningfulness of life is called into question during the entire musical and audacious interventions of the characters lead the thread towards a hedonistic tendency. Every character has a personal intention and the plot is determined by their self-interest: Cinderella wants to marry the Prince, Jack wants to help his mother, Rapunzel wants to escape from the tower and run away with her lover, the Witch wants to regain her lost beauty.
The heroes and heroines are common human beings, with their flaws, insecurities, desires and griefs. The image of the hero is different from traditional fairy tales, the heroes are here anti-heroes, or even villains. The Baker and his wife are the ones who tie everything and everyone together, so we might think that family as the purest connection is the epicenter. The presence of human flaws, such as lust, pretense, disloyalty and abandonment debunk and dismantle this illusion of the perfect family.
Sexual undertones and pedophilic tendencies appear in the film, carefully hidden between the “lines”. Lack of morality is present and creates confusion: is this movie suitable for children? There are a few passages in the movie where the characters have improper behaviour: the Baker’s wife lets herself enchanted by the power of the forest and slightly steps out of line. Then Baker acts foolishly at hard times and abandons his much-desired son for a short time. The “perfect” family is actually a real family, with crisis, problems and frustrations, but always together. Remaining together and not giving up on their initial purpose is the real perfection.
The plot gravitates around wishes and life paths that come across without a clear order and change people. The forest acts like a facilitator for its inhabitants; it brings them in different situations and pushes them to react. All the characters blame each other when in distress and refuse to take responbility, some of them even forget their purpose. The Prince claimed to madly love Cinderella, but the love vanishes away with the first provocative encounter. His feelings seem rather superficial and the image of love is sour.
”Into the Woods” is, in fact, a realistic depiction of existence presented in a seemingly happy manner with the help of music and special effects. Man is presented here with all of his mysterious ways of being and astonishes with complexity. Fundamentals about the human character are carefully hidden between the lines and songs, but still there for the ones who are curious to discover.
Ana-Maria Stan
