into the woods, magical, musical

Even better than I imagined, Into the Woods is the perfect holiday film. Full of wonderful music by Stephen Sondheim, a cast that is not only stellar, but can sing well, and enough joy and gloom to balance out the roller-coaster emotional terrain that accompanies the holiday season. And if there was any doubt that the movie was a hit with my ten year-old daughter, the evidence was her singing the songs in the car on the ride home, and her ultimate thrill when looking up the lyrics on the internet to discover that I had downloaded the soundtrack from iTunes for her continued enjoyment. How cool is that?

The movie, directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha), is great to look at, and uses its CGI to wonderful effect, just to add a little magic when needed. Hollywood, take note, CGI should be used as a tool, not an excuse for a whole movie. But what really enchants are the songs. The original fairytale mash-up, Into the Woods loosely follows the stories of Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy), Jack and the Beanstalk (Daniel Huttlestone) and Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), while introducing a couple that yearns for a child, The Baker (James Corden) and his Wife (Emily Blunt), who, may see their wish to become parents granted if they can help reverse a curse by the local witch (Meryl Streep).

Meryl Streep makes a wonderful Witch

Emily Blunt is a stand-out, her performance shining whether she is singing or speaking. Johnny Depp delivers an (appropriate for a change) over-the-top cameo as The Big Bad Wolf ("Hello Little Girl"). But Streep is also wonderful, and aces all of her songs, especially "Children Will Listen." She brings a touching quality to her Witch, who is not quite wicked, if not entirely nice, either.

Everyone in the cast shines. An especially fun surprise is Chris Pine as Cinderella's prince, who states, in maybe his only honest moment, "I was raised to be charming, not sincere." He takes preening and posing to a whole new level, to hilarious effect. His duet mid-way, with his equally humble-brag brother (Billy Magnussen, who has eyes for Rapunzel), "Agony," energizes the film and provides the first clue to the uninitiated that this won't be a completely traditional take on fairy tales. The kid sang "Agony," her favorite number, as we walked out of the theater — for quite a while before asking me what "agony" meant. "Oh! That makes sense!"

[Cinderella's Prince]
Did I abuse her
Or show her disdain?
Why does she run from me?
If I should lose her,
How shall I regain
The heart she has won from me?

Agony!
Beyond power of speech,
When the one thing you want
Is the only thing out of your reach.

[Rapunzel's Prince]
High in her tower,
She sits by the hour,
Maintaining her hair.
Blithe and becoming and frequently humming
A lighthearted air:
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-

Agony!
Far more painful than yours,
When you know she would go with you
If there only were doors.

The Baker and his wife bargain with Jack for his cow

Parenthood, especially motherhood, is a theme that twines through the story, from the Witch's strange interpretation of a doting parent - kidnap a beautiful child and lock her up in a tower away from the world — to The Baker and his Wife being willing to do anything to become parents — to Jack's abusive mom (Tracey Ullman) and the few fleeting moments he feels of love in a Giantess's embrace, as he tells the Baker in "Giants in the Sky."

A big tall terrible Giant at the door,
A big tall terrible lady Giant
sweeping the floor.
And she gives you food
And she gives you rest
And she draws you close
To her Giant breast,
And you know things now
that you never knew before,
Not till the sky.

There are many wonderful set pieces, from Cinderella's freeze-frame number "On the Steps of the Palace" to the cast singing "No One is Alone" and the title song. But it is Blunt's Baker's Wife who touched me most deeply, especially in "Moments in the Woods."

Just a moment,
One peculiar passing moment...
Must it all be either less or more,
Either plain or grand?
Is it always "or"?
Is it never "and"?
That's what woods are for:
For those moments in the woods...

I have yet to see the play in live performance, but I have seen a filmed version, featuring original Broadway cast members Bernadette Peters (Witch) and Joanna Gleason (Baker's Wife), which was aired originally in 1991 on American Playhouse. It was very good, and I loved the music, but I found it a bit more sarcastic in tone and the characters not as sympathetic. Big screen close-ups probably help create a more intimate atmosphere in this current version, as do a few judicial trims of reprises, etc. that would work well on stage, but not necessarily on film.

Red on her way to Grandmother's house ...

The woods are a magical place, where anything, good or bad, can happen to these characters, and to the lucky audience. Can't wait to see Into the Woods again.

the amazing, beautiful, spooky, and smart paranorman

Eleven year-old Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is not happy. His older sister Courtney (Anna Kendrick) doesn't like him much, his parents don't understand him, and the kids at school, most of them downright bullies like Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), think he's a freak. The only person who understands him is his loving grandmother (Elaine Stritch), which is great — except she's dead. Norman can talk to ghosts, and although he seems to enjoy his special ability at times, especially where Grandma is concerned, for most of the other aspects of his life it causes him a great deal of grief.

Norman and friends must save their town

Norman not only speaks with the dead, but he seems more comfortable with them than the living. His bedroom is covered from floor to ceiling with zombie and horror movie paraphernalia. His walk to school is populated by locals from every era, many of them who left this world in an unconventional, even gruesome fashion. To add to the spooky factor, Norman lives in a Salem-like town called Blithe Hollow, whose chief industry is tourism surrounding a local witch who was hanged 300 years ago, and whose commemorative statue is on the square outside City Hall.

Just as Norman is about to get some normalcy in his life — he has made his first real friend, Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), he is also informed by his uncle Prenderghast (John Goodman) that his ability to talk to the dead (which the recently deceased Prenderghast also shared) makes him Blithe Hollow's only hope. He must save the town by stopping the witch's curse — from raising the dead.

Neil: "So is it true?"
Norman: "What?"
Neil: "Do you see ghosts like everywhere, all the time?"
Norman: "Uh, yeah"
Neil: "Awesome! Do you think you can see my dog, Bub? He was ran over by an animal rescue van. Tragic and ironic. We buried him in the yard. Could you see him?"

ParaNorman, like its hero, is unusual and unexpected. It's stop-motion animation melded with computer graphics is positively amazing, even beautiful, to look at. It also doesn't pull any punches. It's downright scary and gross when it needs to be. Kids (and adults) will love it, as it features good old-fashioned monster-jumping-out-at-you thrills. But ParaNorman also has something to say, about bullying and the not-so-nice nature of humans through history. The people of Blithe Hollow are far more terrifying than many of the dead folks that Norman encounters. The film's re-enactment of Salem-like witch hunting may even cause some movie-goers to think while they're laughing at the in-jokes and enjoying the top-notch visuals.

The characters in ParaNorman are also a little off the norm. The designers and animators have not only given them exaggerated features, like super-wide hips and skinny waists for Norman's mom and sister, and elongated jaws and tiny foreheads for some of his not-so-smart neighbors, but they have actually tried to make some of the characters appear older, something unusual in current animated films, where every character has the same glossy, poreless sheen. Norman's mother sports some serious bags under her eyes and a poochy tummy, while his dad has a beer belly and tired expression. Norman himself has a lopsided nose and thick eyebrows (which other family members share) which add to his personality.

Portland, OR based Laika, whose first animated feature was Coraline, has done a magnificent job on ParaNorman. Its use of 3D printing technology, in its infancy when the company made Coraline in 2009, enables the animation studio to give Norman & Co. over 1 million facial expressions. Directors Sam Fell's (The Tale of Despereaux, Flushed Away) and Chris Butler's attention to detail and love of classic horror films shines from every scene. ParaNorman is a film to be savored, from the bristly hair on Norman's head, to beautiful shadows cast in a forest at night, to the way a zombie's lower jaw hangs precariously from his face. Good news for fans of the studio's work, Laika's next two rumored projects are adaptations of Wildwood, based on the debut children’s novel from Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), and Goblins, from the novel by Philip Reeve.” Like Norman, it looks like Laika's heart and talents lie with the strange and spooky.

oh baby ... a movie ... just as expected

When you're pregnant it seems that everyone has an opinion, advice, or just something to say about having babies. They get an opportunity to relive their own pregnancy experience, or to regale your pregnant self with some birthing horror story. One of the other things that gets shoved down your throat, I mean suggested, are all those baby advice books, and the one at the top of the must-have list is still What to Expect When You're Expecting. I'm not sure if I got that particular baby bible as a gift, or just zombie-like bought it for myself while I was gestating, but I know that I put it aside pretty quickly. I ended up finding some of the pregnancy calendars online a lot more helpful. After my daughter was born I was drawn more to the extremely old school. but down-to-earth advice of good old Dr. Spock, as well as friends and family. But enough about that. I have no intention of boring you with my pregnancy stories. There's a movie for that.

There is a glimpse of the book early on in the movie What to Expect When You're Expecting, and then it is ditched. What is served up instead of advice, or even a plot, is a hodge-podge of pregnancy vignettes, featuring five couples who live in Atlanta. They are all white, all straight, and all going through pretty typical pre-baby travails. And the film is capped off by the highly predictable in-tandem rush to the hospital, as three of the couples give birth simultaneously. Uh huh. Yawn. Grrr.

The dudes group, cruising through the park.

It's a shame, because there are a few hints that the movie may have had some potential to be funny, if it had been in the hands of (dare I say it) someone like Adam Sandler or Judd Apatow. It's clearly trying to flirt with Bridesmaids Kristen Wiig-like humor with its focus on the hemorrhoids and morning sickness that frequently afflict pregnant women. But it plays it safe and serves up too many stories featuring people that the audience is unlikely to care about. Its two highest-marquee stars, Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez, are featured in completely superfluous story-lines. Diaz plays a Jillian Michaels-like television host who is having a baby with a reality dance show star (Matthew Morrison). Lopez is a highly glamorous professional photographer who wants to adopt a child from Ethiopia, and who wears enormous false eyelashes while she travels there to pick him up; she has a doubtful-about-adopting husband (Rodrigo Santoro), who we all know will be a happy big daddy in the end. Neither couple is highly relatable or amusing.

In a blatant attempt to bring in the youngsters, Chace Crawford and Anna Kendrick play rival food truck owners (talk about trying  to hit all the current trends at once) who find themselves pregnant after a one-time hook-up. They could have and should have been in their own rom-com. The two have some genuine chemistry, and if they were given better material, they could have stolen the movie, but in this silly Valentine's Day-like celebrity cameo kaleidoscope, they are really out of place.

The two couples at the center of the movie are a father (Dennis Quaid) and son (Ben Falcone) whose wives are both expecting (Brooklyn Decker and Elizabeth Banks, respectively). Their storyline gets to the competitive nature of pregnancy, and Banks gets to exhibit all of the stuff that isn't usually rhapsodized about when you're pregnant — flatulence, having to pee all the time, mood swings, etc. Their scenes together are goofy and over-the-top, but at least they are attempting to make the audience laugh. Most of the other plot lines fall very flat.

The only genuinely funny performances in What to Expect When You're Expecting are provided by Chris Rock and his accident-prone toddler. Rock functions as a guru-of-sorts to a local daddy group, who meet for dude time, taking regular strolls in the park with their young-uns. Every time his crew is onscreen is a good time. Paired with Bank's disillusioned mama-to-be, maybe the movie could have really have gone in the direction of pulling the rug out from under all of the "pregnancy is wonderful" stuff we are used to hearing. But it is doubtful that What to Expect When You're Expecting's author Heidi Murkoff would have approved of that interpretation. So what we are left with are some stale baby jokes and the "when I had my baby" stories that people are dying to share, but no one is ever that excited to hear.