“Into the Woods” is the cinematic adaptation of the stage musical by the same name. The story amalgamates and overlaps many of The Brothers Grimm fairy tales into a dark, cautionary fable about wishes, misguided wishes and the consequences thereof.

First and foremost “Into the Woods” spots an absolutely spectacular cast. The combined star power of Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine and others is the film’s major selling-point and potentially it’s greatest strength.

I say potentially because this is a very difficult film to judge as a film and, by extension, the acting is very difficult to judge as cinematic acting. Perhaps more than any musical film I’ve seen, “Into the Woods” evokes every bit of its Broadway heritage. The acting, set design, story outline and even the film’s pacing all evoke the feeling of sitting in a theater watching a stage production. That feeling is both good and bad. At times, the film felt hindered because it stuck so closely to its stage roots, such has having giants, but always cutting corners and never revealing the monsters in their enormity – like most films would. At other times, it felt like an astounding stage production because one of the sets was an actual stream – a realism that no stage play could ever replicate. Ultimately, I’m inclined to lean in the direction my former example. The nature of adaptation is change, and “Into the Woods” could have benefited from a few more changes in an effort to be more cinematic.

Streep, Blunt and Kendrick, in particular, are excellent at their respective characters. The best songs in this piece almost exclusively belong to one of the three women listed above, but all involved did admirable jobs. Young Daniel Huttlestone, who plays Jack from the legend of “Jack and the Beanstalk” has a promising career in stage or film productions. For literally his entire career, consisting of “Into the Woods” and “Les Misérables,” he has been a standout performer.

While being well-produced, well-acted, and mostly entertaining, “Into the Woods,” like “Unbroken” never hits the swell of emotion that is so easily evoked by music, and particularly musicals. My heart never broke and my heart never soared, despite its roots and cavalcade of stars. “Into the Woods” set out on a journey but ultimately strayed from the path.

4 of 6 stars