Into the Woods (PG, 125 mins)

Director: Rob Marshall

2 stars

There's a very good chance Into the Woods is going to be remembered as an audience-splitter of the highest order.

Go in expecting a typical Disney fantasy along the lines of Maleficent and you're liable to be left scratching your head. Realise that it's a dark and challenging musical from a writer who's far from everyone's cup of tea and you may find it very rewarding.

Veteran composer Stephen Sondheim's songs have always asked their listener to put in a bit of effort, rather than be spoon-fed something jolly. Tim Burton's version of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd might have worked as a blood-drenched gothic horror, but a good musical it certainly was not.

Musicals must stand or fall on their songs, and there must be at least 15 of them throughout this testing affair. The problem is, unless you're already a fan, you might be hard pushed to tell them apart, given how tuneless and unappetising most of them are.

For his 1986 stage show, Sondheim took classic fairytales as his starting point, sending various well known characters such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Rapunzel into the woods. Here they blunder around the forest, constantly running into each other as required, in time to belt out another (or possibly the same) number.

Then they trail off for their individual stories, with only the baker and his wife (James Corden and Emily Blunt) offering anything close to compelling characters. Their story forms the spine of the narrative, with a witch (Meryl Streep) having tasked them to find certain items or they will always be childless.

Because the themes and plot developments are dark doesn't automatically make it effective though, leaving Into the Woods unable to create the emotional impact it would clearly like to. Another big and brash musical from a couple of years ago tried and succeeded in a similar vein, but compared to the crowd-pleasing histrionics of Les Miserables, this is just miserable.

Still, there's a scattering of stuff for casual or non-fans to enjoy, particularly when it comes to the cast. The singing performances certainly can't be faulted, and it looks fantastic, which you'd expect for the money that's been spent. For all that there are numerous huge stars around him, Corden is essentially the lead, and he acquits himself very well indeed. Streep is sensational as the witch, energetic in her singing and her witchiness, while Blunt and Anna Kendrick as Cinderella are very watchable.

You could probably also count it as a blessing that Johnny Depp is only on screen for around five minutes, his cameo as the Big Bad Wolf being used as a lure for people who think they're getting Alice in Wonderland.

But just when you might begin to think you've gotten off easy, when there comes a point perhaps an hour or more in where it all seems to have been wrapped up, this proves sadly to be far from the case. Sondheim has plenty more material up his sleeve with which to test us, as a whole other movie breaks out and we have to go round again. Sondheim and/or Into the Woods fan? Feel free to disagree.

See it if you liked: Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables, Enchanted

Foxcatcher (15, 134 mins)

Director: Bennett Miller

4 stars

Chilly drama Foxcatcher is based on real events and real people, but on the off chance you might not be aware of what unfolded, it's best to go in not knowing too many of the details.

Yet it's a film that sits at an off-kilter angle from the start, clueing you in on the likelihood of something grim developing. It begins in 1987 with Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), a wrestling gold medal winner at the 1984 Olympics, now slightly down on his luck. His brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo) is also a champion wrestler, with their perhaps strained relationship expressed more through their training bouts than words. Dave seems like a decent family man, always looking out for his brother, with the ape-like Mark easily led and quick to temper.

The potential for trouble begins when Mark is called to the home of billionaire industrialist John du Pont (Steve Carell), who has a dream to train wrestlers on his Foxcatcher estate to become the best in the world. The sense of unease only increases when Mark gets to Foxcatcher, with the dawning, perhaps more on us than Mark, that he's got himself into an odd situation and that du Pont is clearly a strange fish.

It's the triangle of the characters and the brewing tension between them, most of it unspoken that drives the narrative. We're privy to some of du Pont's odd behaviour, and given hints and suggestions of deeper improprieties, yet we're never quite told why things start to go awry for Mark at Foxcatcher, making the drama both subtle and at times frustrating. There's also just a bit too much movie here for what is a limited sequence of events, although it never feels like it's dragging.

A trio of remarkable performances makes it well worth your time, and it's hard to say which of them is the biggest revelation. We've always known how good Ruffalo can be, but we didn't know Tatum or Carell could handle themselves this well in serious drama. There's never been anything like it from Carell as he stands peering over his enormous prosthetic nose, still and imperious, frustrated by his controlling mother (Vanessa Redgrave) and his own lack of sporting prowess and isolated by his wealth and sociopathic nature.

It's set in the world of wrestling and there's plenty of it, but Foxcatcher is by no means a sport movie. What it is is coldly terrifying, never rushing to the heart of the drama but setting all its pieces calmly and precisely to deliver a haunting portrait of power and madness.

See it if you liked: The Wrestler, Capote, Milk