SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
The Blood Of Love Within, and Love For Blood Without (Watch Out For Those Lovett Pies!)
PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber
Of Fleet Street"
By Omar P.L. Moore/December 21, 2007
Love At First Cut: Johnny Depp, excellent as Sweeney Todd, in Tim Burton's
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street". (Photos: Dreamworks)
The musical comes to life in the most operatic and triumphant way in Tim Burton's film version of the Broadway smash "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street", which opened today across North America, and the film is a well-executed assemblage of drama, Stephen Sondheim's music (of course) and special performances from Johnny Depp in the title role and Helena Bonham Carter, who as Mrs. Lovett steals the show with her zippy, zappy one-liners that are well-timed -- but less well-cooked are Mrs. Lovett's pies -- they are in need of further investigation in London circa 1800, where the story of love lost and blood lust revenge in the name of love takes place. If the USDA had its druthers, or if at least Upton Sinclair, the muckraker extraordinaire did, the pies would be off market, but in London they are singular (and startlingly digital) sensations, to say the least.
Mr. Burton whose long-time girlfriend Ms. Carter just gave
birth days before this film's release is known for his love of production
values, and that is firmly in evidence here as the design by Dante Ferretti fits
so very well with the grandeur of the original musical's reputation as
translated to the big screen. "Sweeney Todd" is is a film that needed to be in
IMAX and 3D -- not last month's dreary "Beowulf" or perhaps even Mr. Burton's
own "The Nightmare Before Christmas", which seems to arrive on 3D, or whatever
"D" is coming next, every single year. In Mr. Burton's musical on film,
the Sondheim songs snap and sparkle at the same time while Mr. Todd plots
methodically. His life as the once-merry barber Benjamin Barker has
figuratively (if not literally) been extinguished following the abduction of his
wife Lucy and child Johanna by one Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman, perennially
excellent as a villain, whether in "Die Hard" or "Harry Potter"), made more
unlikable because of his desires for under-aged children, most notably the same
Johanna, now a 13 or 14-year-old, who is a ward in the judge's hands, for lack
of a far-better phrasing. Johanna (Jayne Wisener) has matured, and is also
the object of the affection of a teenage boy named Anthony (Jamie Campbell
Bower) who has fallen for Johanna, who takes a liking to him too.
"Sweeney Todd" gets off to a rousing musical start, with a strong revival of the
song "No Place Like London" and continues uphill with later appearances by Sasha
Baron Cohen as the dastardly Pirelli, and Timothy Spall as Beadle Bamford,
Turpin's assistant in mischief. Mr. Spall has been in the villain's corner
before in last month's "Enchanted" and here in "Todd" he is toned down but no
less malevolent or scheming. The film's script builds the drama, music and
the bloodletting as they all collide powerfully from the film's middle onwards.
The one thing saving Mr. Burton's film from an NC-17 is the blood's exaggerated
wax-like bright orange-red look -- for if it were the typical blood-red the film
would be tougher to sit through. If Heath Ledger's Joker will next year
wear a sloppy blood-red smile on his face as he performs his wicked mischief in
a film franchise Mr. Burton once cornered the market on, then Mr. Depp's Sweeney
Todd will etch a deep smile into the necks of his unwitting customers before
this tale of macabre and menace is complete.
"Care for a shave?"
Mr. Depp is magnetic, giving Sweeney Todd a power and depth that aches -- you can feel Todd's loneliness and understand his madness as well as he plots his inevitable revenge. He counts his trusty razors, as strong a fetish as the guns were in last month's "Hitman", sharpening them to perfection. The razors may as well be his knives and forks, as he's ready to serve up his dish. As Mr. Depp belts out the song "My Friend", he practically makes love to the razors with his eyes and his voice. These silver cutlasses are indeed all he's got left after the true loves he's lost. As well as Mr. Todd's most lethal implements, the film's make-up and costume design in particular are priceless, as are the cinematographic visions of Dariusz Wolksi.
Mr. Burton and Mr. Depp once again demonstrate that on most occasions they are a perfect collaborative match. In the best of their films, "Ed Wood", "Edward Scissorhands", "Sleepy Hollow", and here, they are excellent, and in the not-so good ones (the creepy "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory") they are still not too bad as a creative team. "Sweeney Todd" is a satisfying experience and if one isn't familiar with the musical, the film's opening credit sequence leaves no illusions as to the color of money, and in this Christmas holiday season it is unabashedly red.
Mr. Depp with the equally brilliant Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, in Tim
Burton's film.
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street", is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for graphic bloody violence. The film's duration is two hours. Hold on to your neck.
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