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...was a lot of fun in Into the Woods, but doesn't really deserve a Best Supporting Actress.
I'm glad we got a chance to see Into the Woods--I have a lot of issues with the play, but I thoroughly enjoyed everyone's performances. ("Agony" was just amazing. We were dying of laughter.) I think some of the cuts they made helped line things up a bit better with the marketing campaign than I was expecting.
This play is a heck of a downer. It's got the dual morals of "getting your wish will never make you happy" and "actions have consequences". And half the characters die, horribly. Given that they marketed it as a family holiday musical, I was concerned. A lot of people still do die horribly. But since they had to cut a lot for time, they did some nicely strategic cuts that significantly reduced the death count. Without the deaths of the narrator, the stepmother and stepsisters, and Rapunzel and her prince (and babies?), there's not quite as much a sense of "Oh god the world is ending and everyone ever is going to die". (The Witch does come off a little more petulant in "Last Midnight" without Rapunzel's death, but it's still pretty devastating to have your kid say she never wants to see you again.)
They also pretty much cut the "getting your wish will never make you happy" theme. We jump straight from everyone is happy to giant, skipping the opening of Act II where everyone is not so happy. Cinderella's plotline mostly makes it up--it's clear from her conversation at her mother's grave that the palace wasn't all she dreamed of. But the Baker's Wife's storyline has always bothered me, and it's even worse now. Before, she and her husband were handling the new baby thing poorly. (And I can relate. The first couple months of a new baby is a strain on a marriage.) In the movie, she's slightly exasperated that he won't hold the kid they struggled for, but there's not much indicating real cracks. So when she succumbs to the Prince's charms, it just comes across as kind of shallow and petty, rather than a human lapse. And then she immediately dies as punishment (while he rides off without much repercussion--sure, Cinderella leaves him, but he was over her anyway). It's the worst kind of slut-shaming, in which women are blamed and punished and men aren't for the same act.
But Emily Blunt is marvelous anyway.
So after seeing Streep as the Witch, we noted how much better the part was suited for her voice than her last musical, Mamma Mia! Which, coincidentally, the B&B had. And we had a bottle of wine in the middle of the afternoon and no toddler, and somehow it seemed like a good idea to rewatch this.
That movie is one of the most terrible fun movies ever. Everyone in it is clearly having such a good time that you just can't help but enjoy yourself. The plot makes no sense and the daughter is such a freaking twit. Meryl Streep doesn't have a lot of the notes, but that's nothing on Pierce Brosnan, who is so remarkably, startlingly bad at singing that it's actually comical. I mean, seriously, he's terrible. I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to cast him except that maybe Hugh Jackman wasn't available? Surely someone else handsome with an actual ability to hit more than two notes without cracking was? But he's so entertainingly terrible. It's a shockingly endearing movie.
I'm glad we got a chance to see Into the Woods--I have a lot of issues with the play, but I thoroughly enjoyed everyone's performances. ("Agony" was just amazing. We were dying of laughter.) I think some of the cuts they made helped line things up a bit better with the marketing campaign than I was expecting.
This play is a heck of a downer. It's got the dual morals of "getting your wish will never make you happy" and "actions have consequences". And half the characters die, horribly. Given that they marketed it as a family holiday musical, I was concerned. A lot of people still do die horribly. But since they had to cut a lot for time, they did some nicely strategic cuts that significantly reduced the death count. Without the deaths of the narrator, the stepmother and stepsisters, and Rapunzel and her prince (and babies?), there's not quite as much a sense of "Oh god the world is ending and everyone ever is going to die". (The Witch does come off a little more petulant in "Last Midnight" without Rapunzel's death, but it's still pretty devastating to have your kid say she never wants to see you again.)
They also pretty much cut the "getting your wish will never make you happy" theme. We jump straight from everyone is happy to giant, skipping the opening of Act II where everyone is not so happy. Cinderella's plotline mostly makes it up--it's clear from her conversation at her mother's grave that the palace wasn't all she dreamed of. But the Baker's Wife's storyline has always bothered me, and it's even worse now. Before, she and her husband were handling the new baby thing poorly. (And I can relate. The first couple months of a new baby is a strain on a marriage.) In the movie, she's slightly exasperated that he won't hold the kid they struggled for, but there's not much indicating real cracks. So when she succumbs to the Prince's charms, it just comes across as kind of shallow and petty, rather than a human lapse. And then she immediately dies as punishment (while he rides off without much repercussion--sure, Cinderella leaves him, but he was over her anyway). It's the worst kind of slut-shaming, in which women are blamed and punished and men aren't for the same act.
But Emily Blunt is marvelous anyway.
So after seeing Streep as the Witch, we noted how much better the part was suited for her voice than her last musical, Mamma Mia! Which, coincidentally, the B&B had. And we had a bottle of wine in the middle of the afternoon and no toddler, and somehow it seemed like a good idea to rewatch this.
That movie is one of the most terrible fun movies ever. Everyone in it is clearly having such a good time that you just can't help but enjoy yourself. The plot makes no sense and the daughter is such a freaking twit. Meryl Streep doesn't have a lot of the notes, but that's nothing on Pierce Brosnan, who is so remarkably, startlingly bad at singing that it's actually comical. I mean, seriously, he's terrible. I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to cast him except that maybe Hugh Jackman wasn't available? Surely someone else handsome with an actual ability to hit more than two notes without cracking was? But he's so entertainingly terrible. It's a shockingly endearing movie.
