I finally got a chance to see Sweeney Todd last week. If you go back to my blog of October 17 you'll read about my skepticism in Johnny Depp being cast as "the demon barber of Fleet Street" since he is not known as a singer. Of course the doubt I expressed was strictly rhetorical. I am a big fan of both Depp and Burton and really had no doubt in my mind that they could pull it off. And they did in a big way. I mean, really, what's a Tim Burton film without Johnny Depp? (If you're counting, they've done six together. The other five are Edward Scissorhands, The Corpse Bride, Sleepy Hollow, Ed Wood, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.) They are the 21st century's Hepburn and Tracy. They rarely miss, if ever. And who could have done justice to this macabre Stephen Sondheim musical better than Tim Burton? It's right up his alley since just about every movie he makes is dark. Even Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had a much gloomier aura than Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory of which it was a remake.
The movie, take away the blood and gore, is a delightful romp. It opens with the bloodiest, goriest credits I have ever seen which handily set the tone for the movie. The opening scene has barber Benjamin Barker (later to be known as Sweeney Todd) on a ship returning to London after spending 15 years in an Australian penal colony for a crime he did not commit. Is it me or has Depp, with the ashy makeup, kind of morphed into Christopher Walken? His voice which is powerful and well enunciated sounds very much like David Bowie. He played the dark, brooding Mr. T, as Mrs. Lovett refers to him, brilliantly. But would we expect anything less from Depp? On the other hand, Helena Bonham Carter who plays Mrs. Lovett, Todd's accomplice in crime who makes the worst meat pies in London, performed well as she usually does and looked the part, but in my opinion overdid the cockney accent making it difficult for me and my friend, Lana, to understand some of the dialogue. It was obvious she got the director's intention, after all she is married to him, but I would have enjoyed it more if I understood what she was saying. However, this may not be a problem for British audiences.
There was a lovely, light-hearted musical number, "By the Sea", where Mrs. Lovett is dreaming about her future together with Todd and the young boy she has taken in as a ward. You know, the husband, children, house with the white picket fence dream. But even though the number was light and colorful with great costumes and seaside scenery, it still had a dark undertone. There was also a touching number by Mrs. Lovett and her ward, Toby, promising each other that nothing's gonna harm them in the song "Not While I'm Around".
I loved the whole Dickensian feeling of the characters, the sets which were like stage sets rather than location shots (save for a few like the seaside scene), the costumes, the makeup, lighting and cinematography. They were all done to perfection.
I have to mention Sacha Baron Cohen as the smarmy Signor Pirelli, a barber with a traveling medicine show, who played the part with hilarious flamboyance. Alan Rickman was perfect as the evil Judge Turpin who was responsible for not only sending the barber to prison, but for treating Todd's wife and daughter horrifically. And Timothy Spall as Beadle, Judge Turpin's evil henchman, looking like he walked straight out of Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" was cloyingly abhorrent.
If you can stomach the blood, I highly recommend it. You can look away like I did, but I warn you, even the sounds of the throats being slashed and the blood gushing is terrifying. In my opinion, it's the best stage to screen adaptation I've ever seen, but if you're the least bit squeamish I suggest you skip it. Instead go see Juno or have a manicure, haircut or shave. Eek!!!!!
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