INTO THE WOODS (PG)
★★★½

Director Rob Marshall made both the excellent Chicago and the tedious Nine so it's good to report his latest musical, based on the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine show, is impressive. It's a fairytale mash-up aimed at adults and older children that shows not all stories end with a simple "happily ever after".

A witch (Meryl Streep) tells the Baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) that they have a curse on them and the only way to lift it is to collect various items within a set period or they will never have children. In their hunt they encounter Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) and Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), among others, and parts of their stories play out too and intertwine.

There are some fine songs – the two princes' tongue-in-cheek lament Agony sung by Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen is a highlight, as is the menacing Hello Little Girl sung by Johnny Depp as the Wolf – and the film's production values are excellent. If the second half isn't quite as satisfying as the first, it's still good, and it's nice to see musicals still keeping a place in movies.

The complete lack of any special features is disappointing.