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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
In the black corner: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp - a guarantee for a great movie. In the brown corner: it's a MUSICAL - eurgh. This could go down to the judges.
Adapted from the successful Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical, Johnny Depp is Sweeney Todd, a barber in Old London Town out for revenge on the rotter who nicked his crumpet. Helena Bonham Carter runs the manky pie shop below and between them they strike upon the idea of giving customers a rather intrusive shave - knowworrImean - and putting them in the pies. Fray Bentos have no plans to sue.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is getting great reviews because it's a great musical. But it's still a musical, and at the end of the day it's that single fact that will determine whether or not you like it. I enjoyed this film: I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: if you're into musicals. Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: - lashings of blood and dismembered body parts, Helena Bonham Carter's heaving bosom (which changes size due to her pregnancy during filming) and light language such as piss and bugger, but the 18 certificate is ludicrous. It has 15 written all over it. To enjoy this film you should: like Tim Burton and soft furnishings. I mean musicals.
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First of all, if you like musicals AND Tim Burton's movies (there must be someone) then stop reading and go straight to
the cinema, because this'll be your movie of the year. However, many viewers will be distinctly turned off by either the
singing or by Burton's gothic style (Batman, Sleepy Hollow etc.) - and if that happens you'll struggle to immerse yourself
at all.
Personally I love Burton's movies (if we forget the uncharacteristic faux pas that was Planet of the Apes) and Johnny
Depp is among my favourite performers - but Sweeney Todd left me cold. It's fine when the characters are chatting to each
other, but just as the atmosphere is starting to build, one of them starts warbling and the illusion shatters. Not only
that, the dialogue itself is largely sung, pointlessly, rather than limiting the trilling to the actual songs.
They're not even very catchy tunes - I haven't been humming them as you might expect. I'm not even sure I can remember any.
It's frustrating because if it had been played as a straight movie, I'd have loved it. Tim Burton's brooding scenery is
typically engaging in a fantasy kind of way and the opening sequence sets the tone beautifully. All the performances are
appropriate for a dark fairy tale and there's plenty of blood once Sweeney's barbery becomes carvery. Such a shame they
had to spoil it.
