Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
By Jason Revill
My parents used to take my brother and I to the theater to see musicals when I was young. I always felt a little out of place, like someone had inadvertently let two little hillbilly kids in and if we weren’t careful we would be thrown out. Let’s face it, not a lot of kids had a childhood where on the weekend they could either be slaughtering a hog or taking in a production of 42nd Street. Now that being said, there was always one play that I wanted to see, but was never allowed to, and that was Sweeney Todd. In retrospect maybe not letting my seven year old brother see a play about a barber killing folks while the lady downstairs bakes them into pies was a good call. He turned out far more well-balanced than I.
Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) had everything he wanted including a career as a barber, a wife and daughter; that is until the corrupt Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) decided that he wanted those things for himself. The judge convicts Barker of a crime he didn’t commit and has him exiled from England. Years have passed and now the man who had his life taken from him has returned with a new name and an insatiable desire for revenge. With the help of the meat pie selling Mrs. Lovette (Helena Bonham Carter) the newly monikered Sweeney Todd plans to slash his way through whoever he has to get to the man that stole his life.
I have to admit that Sweeney Todd was a pretty major disappointment as far as I’m concerned. On paper this seems like a pretty easy home run: creepy story, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter. How could it miss? I don’t know how it does it, but it just never really comes together. You would think with all these elements in place creating a certain mood would be easy, but it’s almost like everyone is just going through the motions. Maybe because it does seem like it should be easy that they decided to phone it in.
When it comes to reveling in the macabre, Tim Burton is the master. But he doesn’t do realistic horror, instead it’s more horror as camp. What you end up with is something that is neither creepy enough to be scary, but takes itself a little too seriously to be dark comedy. In some respects and it could be due to the fact that several numbers have been cut including the title song, so the film seems rushed. Depp never really seems to show any real character outside of superficial glaring. Meanwhile, the spurting blood, and there’s quite a bit, never really seems like the release that it is meant to.
Johnny Depp has once again chosen an oddball role that really gets as much attention for his decision to do it as does his actual performance. I’m not really that impressed with him dressing like Humphry Bogart’s Dr. X and singing like David Bowie. Also since there really seems to be a lack of story, Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin is completely underutilized. The only performance that I particularly enjoyed was Helena Bonham Carter’s. I hate to say that in a movie as dark as this she was the only bright spot, but she was. Let’s face the best moments in the film are her musical numbers or any scene with Sacha Baron Cohen, who is perfect, even if his pants are a little too tight for my taste.
Of all the recent rash of movie musicals, Sweeney Todd is probably the hardest to choke down especially for people who don’t like musicals. If your chief complaint is that people burst into song for no reason, you’ll hate this one. For the most part with something like Dreamgirls or Hairspray there’s a context for there to be music, but here there just isn’t. And for a guy who’s been going to musicals since he was a kid, you’re going to have to try a little harder than this to win me over.
The Grade
- Story: B-
- Acting: B-
- Visuals: C+
- Originality: C
- Enjoyability: C
- Overall: C+
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