#rob marshall

Mary Poppins returns (2018)

Emily Blunt as baker's wife in Into the woods (2014)

‘The Little Mermaid’ directed by Rob Marshall (2023)

‘The Little Mermaid’ directed by Rob Marshall (2023)

Chicago (2002, dir. Rob Marshall)

Federico Fellini’s 1963 classic 8½ is a work of self-deprecating wit, in which a director played by Marcello Mastroianni, who was Fellini’s cinematic alter ego, tries to launch a new film while at the same time scrutinizing his failures and foibles, most of which have to do with women, including his mother, his wife, his mistresses, and his flings. Any attempt to remake or adapt that film is going to lack its essence: the personality of Fellini himself. On Broadway, the musicalization of the film as Nine substituted performance for personality, using the very slight plot of the movie as a reason to string together songs and production numbers. But by returning the stage production to its original medium, Rob Marshall's Nine not only loses the energy of live performance but also invites comparison of one movie to the other. Nine is essentially a remake, and has to be judged as that. Everyone in Marshall’s film works very hard to put it across. As Guido, Daniel Day-Lewis energetically tries to efface the memory of Mastroianni is the tormented director. Penélope Cruz has a sizzling musical number and manages to create a vivid character out of Carla, Guido’s mistress. Marion Cotillard sings well and acts beautifully as Guido’s wife. And just the presence of Sophia Loren as Guido’s mother is enough to cast a spell over the movie. But in the end nothing works, and the film falls flat where 8½ sent moviegoers out of the theater with a sense of exhilaration, of having experienced a director’s complete and complex vision. Once, while typing the title of Marshall’s movie, I wrote None. Maybe I should have left the typo.   

Rob Marshall did such a good job transforming Chicago (2002) into a cinematic experience that I had hopes for Into the Woods. Unfortunately the James Lapine-Stephen Sondheim book and lyrics are so droll and cerebral that they tend to get swamped by the special effects and big stars in the movie. Instead of being caught up in the story, I kept wondering “how are they going to top that?” The book is structured to be anticlimactic, with the wedding of Cinderella and the prince as the usual happy ending followed by the dark not-so-happily-ever-after sequel. This works in the theatrical version, when you know that there’s another act coming, but in the film version it has the effect of making you look at your watch. Still, there are things to enjoy in the movie, such as watching non-musical stars like Meryl Streep, Chris Pine, and Johnny Depp in a musical setting. But the real star among them is Emily Blunt as the baker’s wife, demonstrating good comic timing as well as a solid understanding of the character.

credit: @cyrano2021dirjoewright