Just before DVDs come out, here are two reviews of holiday movies the kids and I finally caught at the "dollar movie" ($4).  We were excited about both of these back in December, but then the reviews came out and we dragged our feet.  In the end, we weren't (too) disappointed.

Into the Woods.  If you were wondering what Anna Kendrick was doing with Neil Patrick Harris last night during the Oscars opening number, this is it.  Kendrick seemed to be wearing her exact dress (but not shoes -- remember the cow ate one) from her role as Cinderella in this musical movie.  Unlike my kids, I had not seen even a high school production of Into the Woods, so I was struck for the first time at how clever the plot is.  Many (many) fairy tales are woven into one story of an old, ugly witch who gives the barren baker couple next door a chance to have a child if they will go "into the woods" and fetch her four objects by midnight in three days -- a red cape, a milk white cow, a gold slipper and hair the color of corn.  The woods here are a metaphor for [life/the world/fears/hopes/whatever].  People are changed when they go into the woods and emerge wiser and less innocent.  The Broadway version (not the high school musical version) is grittier, so some of the songs don't seem quite right with the Disney-fied version, but that's ok.

So, is the singing good?  Yes, by most measures.  Meryl Streep is much better than she was in Mamma Mia, I suppose because the genre is a better fit?  Or the range?  The autotune?  Anna Kendrick is also great, as is Jack (of beanstalk fame), played by Daniel Huttlestone, sounding (and looking) exactly as he did as Gavroche in Les Miserable.  I found this actually distracting, but that may just be me.  The funniest song is "Agony," sung tongue-in-cheek by Prince Charming (Chris Pine) and his brother, Rapunzel's hero (Billy Magnussen).  It goes on a bit long, but so does everything in the movie.  At one point, my son got up to go to the restroom, and I warned him that the movie was almost over.  He gave me a knowing look and said, "No it's not, Mom."  And it wasn't.  So, if you think the play goes on a bit long, so does the movie.  All in all, I'm glad we went and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Annie.  We were shocked that this movie did not get good ratings, particularly because the trailer seemed so promising.  Now, we aren't as shocked.  I think the reviews for this movie are low for two reasons:  substance and score (I guess that's everything, though).  

When the movie came out, I noticed a lot of chatter on FB about how parents with adopted children should stay clear of the movie.  And here's the problem.  Little Orphan Annie was a depression-era cartoon, and the play and Carol Burnett movie version keep the action in our romantic past.  The long-distance lens lets us pretend that orphans in orphanages are blissfully ignorant of their basket-on-doorstep pasts, perfectly well-adjusted and healthy, one day away from a happily ever after with a new family, and temporarily cared for by a matron who is too campy and funny to be too evil.  But Annie tries to revamp the musical by putting the events in modern day, where we know a little too much about the foster care system, attachment disorders, and reunification to find the fairy tale in five foster care children daydreaming about their real families.  The foster mom, played to the hilt by Cameron Diaz, is more sharp than funny as a bitter alcoholic. Of course, if the movie were too realistic it wouldn't be the same musical, so our five foster care children feel sorry for their foster mom and laugh her off.  The right balance may have been impossible, but it's definitely not there.

So, our 2014 Annie is still waiting for her parents, who left her (somewhere) when she was 4, leaving a note saying they would come back and get her and a locket.  She seems to have no memories prior to being left, and no hard feelings.  But early on, she (literally) runs into Mr. Stacks (Not Warbucks, but close), who is the richest man in America and is running for mayor of New York.  He is elitist and out-of-touch, and befriending a "foster kid" improves his polling.  Annie is worldy-wise and agrees to play along, all the while continuing her search for her real parents.  Of course, the two opposites grow fond of each other, but the evil scheme of Stacks' political consultant and the foster mom to "find" the real parents intervenes.

Here, again, reality intervenes.  In a realistic movie, the thought of paying a couple to pretend to be the real parents of a little girl, take her somewhere and "dump her back in the system" seems like the worst atrocity, not a temporary plot tension.  This twist does not play well in a light-hearted musical.

Which brings us back to the musical.  The credits list as producers not only Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith, but also Jay-Z.  These extremely talented people know a lot about music.  But funnily enough, the "new" songs are completely unmemorable.  They are not toe-tapping, and in fact they can't even get the actors in the movie into any sort of dancing most of the time.  The musical restraint here is very boring.  In Enchanted, show-stopping song and dance numbers were woven into the script, even though they seemed out of place and out of time.  The script used that juxtaposition, and it worked.  Here, the subtle songs just don't work. 

there are also some plot holes -- Where is Stacks' mother and the rest of the family?  He acts like an orphan, but his family is just in Queens.  Where is Annie's parents?  If Annie becomes an overnight social media sensation, why don't they come forward?  Especially when the fake reunion is plastered everywhere?  In the 1920s, it is realistic to think that families would become separated and unable to find each other.  Now?  Not so much.  

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