Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman; Directed by Tim Burton
When Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) arrives at London, he is a completely changed man. Once a gentle barber by the name of Benjamin Barker, he was wrongfully imprisoned after the lecherous Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) began to lust after his innocent wife. When Todd returns to the old neighborhood some fifteen years later, he learns that his wife had poisoned herself after being violated by the depraved Turpin, and that his daughter is now the ward of the judge. Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham-Carter), owner of the world's worst pie shop in London, takes the shell-shocked barber under her wing, gives him a place to open a new business above her shop, and devotes herself to helping him to regain his daughter, and take his vengeance on the judge. With Todd's blackened soul leaking bitterness and malice into the "great black pit" that is London, his shaving razor itches to meet not only the face of the judge, but the rest of unfortunate humanity as well. And incidentally, Mrs. Lovett finds a new ingredient for her pies that soon sends business through the roof.
And so, the twenty-first century has finally seen its first slasher musical. A strange and interesting genre. I wonder how much better business would be if Freddy or Jason cut their way through the scenes while singing ballads and dancing through the dark streets. Hm...maybe not much better. While Sweeney Todd is a vastly entertaining flick, the union of story and song here is not so much a dramatization of a classic musical as it is a top-notch glam rock concert. Mr. Depp and Ms. Bonham-Carter are a proficient pair of singers, as are the rest of the supporting cast, and the tone of Stephen Sondheim's score is accurately matched with the story, but the music itself is less than memorable.
Dariusz Wolski's cinematography adds extra flair and weight simultaneously, and the hair-and-makeup team is to be commended for working up some truly incredible hair-do's. Sasha Baron Cohen is also admirable, (I swear he was wearing a variation on Princess Leia's infamous bun-braids) making the short-lived appearance as Pirelli, an allegedly foreign visitor who pushes a 'miracle elixir' to the masses. His boy servant, Toby (played by the wondrous Ed Sanders), is the brightest star in this film. Belting tunes louder and stronger than anyone else in the cast, he brings an energy and lightness to the story which keeps us engaged when we might have well otherwise gone bleary-eyed from all the blackness and the blood.
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