A mostly satisfying film adaptation. My main gripe is the rushing through of the first act finale and the truncating of "Ever After." I think there should have been just a tad more breathing room throughout the film overall - maybe increasing the movie's running time by 10 minutes or so. Otherwise, very fine. Rob Marshall should be in charge of every major film of a B'way musical. And so thrilling to hear Sondheim's score beefed up brilliantly for the big screen.
In that it doesn't "belong in the past," I presume. It's certainly difficult to see why an entire genre belongs in the past.
In the case of musicals and westerns, their current day popularity is only a fraction of what it once was. Quite simple if one thinks about it...
But no one cares about science fiction anymore either. Those old "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers"-type adventures are just for yesterday's kids. Who's gonna pay to see grown men fight each other with laser swords?
All it takes is one more good one to make a ton of money. Then you'll see how much a given genre "belongs in the past." Historically, at the box office, and currently, in home video sales, musicals are still a viable genre. Just wait until an indisputably good one comes out.
And that's a reason no one should ever try one ever again? Under penalty of... what, exactly?
If you don't personally care for an entire genre, you can always opt not to see movies of that genre; there's no need to begrudge others their joy. If you're not anti-musical in general but think there just haven't been any in decades, perhaps you're not looking in the right place, or perhaps you're just inclined to dismiss everything new. Have you seen every recent musical? Even ones from other countries, in other languages?
Oh, please, please, please, somebody do A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC again.
Oh, no. Wait a sec'. Perhaps it should remain a stage experience.
But don't you think SOMEBODY could do a screen version of "Company"?
(Anybody but Rob Marshall, please.)
Company should have been made into a film circa 1972-73 - I don't know how well that snappy late -60s New York ambiance can be captured now 50 years on.
And what's wrong with Rob Marshall? Into the Woods, Nine, Chicago - he seems to be the only director these days capable of making intelligent stage-to-screen transitions of musicals.
There is to be a film version of Follies, which might be good...(and no Rob Marshall)
A similar problem to making a movie of Company in the 2020s: Follies takes place in 1971 about the reunion of show-biz folks from the revue era of the 1920s and 1930s. You can't really update it without destroying Sondheim's score. But you now lose that, "oh my God - as we enter the 1970s this musical really rams home the notion that those bygone days are never coming back like they used to be." Maybe a movie version could be about the reunion of people who put on a production of Follies decades ago and are nostalgic for the bygone days of 1970s-80s musicals: Sondheim-Prince shows, Annie, A Chorus Line, Cats....LOL!
And if not Rob Marshall, who else these days is capable of making good movie musicals?
And if a Pacific Overtures movie had ever been made, it should have been when production designer Eiko Ishioka was still alive. Her designs for the story sections of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters would have been a great style for PO.
And what's wrong with Rob Marshall? Into the Woods, Nine, Chicago - he seems to be the only director these days capable of making intelligent stage-to-screen transitions of musicals.
I shall respectfully disagree with you, as RM is not at all to my taste. I keep seeing his technique slathered all over every frame of the film. I find it tiresome.
I think he's just the person Hollywood is looking to for these things just because Hollywood looks to the same people to do the same things over and over again.
