Genre: Horriscal
Tagline: Never Forget, Never Forgive
Ebert game it: 4 stars
The lovely trio does it again; Tim Burton imaginatively brings this murderous, bloody musical to life with his bff Johnny Depp and his gff Helena Bonham Carter taking the lead. With me stuff that Burton does is hit or miss, some of the stuff I love because it is dark and creative, other times I just get creeped out (ie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Sweeny Todd was the perfect balance.
Depp plays Benjamin Barker, a barber who has been unjustly sent away by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) who in turn takes ownership of Barker’s wife, whom he drains the life from, and his daughter, whom he keeps locked away in hopes to make his wife (eww). However with the help of a sailor Barker comes back to Fleet Street, a dark and vengeful man under the alias Sweeny Todd. He opens shop in his old hole above Mrs. Lovett’s Bakery and swears revenge on the man who stole his happiness. As he becomes crazed with this revenge he decides to start offing anyone and everyone and Mrs. Lovett disposes the bodies in…her pies (double eww). By the end of the movie you have a hard time deciding who is really bad, and who is sort of bad and wonder what kind of outcome this slasher musical should have (should Sweeny Todd be spared, does he get his revenge? Does it satisfy his taste to kill?). Rest assured it ends like it should and order is somewhat restored.
I would like to preface this next paragraph by saying I have NOT seen this musical on the stage (gasp! I know, an ex-musical theatre major hasn’t seen a musical? Tsk tsk) but knowing what I do know about the extremely successful stage run I think the adapted movie version is good because the musical was good. Adaptation is hard to do, especially when it is coming from a piece that has already been performed and praised, so I give Burton a huge hurrah for this beautifully dark movie. It is refreshing to see a musical brought to the screen without all the ta-da and choreography and horrible ‘camera on a tripod, show on the stage’ cinematography, there is absolutely nothing cheesy about it, so if you are one of those losers who hates musicals because you think they are all flamboyant and might ‘catch gay’ you are WRONG! (and fear not, the theatre is not a contagious place so go see a live show sometime) Depp gives an outstanding performance, I love that he sings and he sings well! Carter’s voice isn’t strong like a trained singer, but it fits her character to try and not be outstanding.
There are many parts of this movie that remind me of Edward Scissorhands, one being Depp’s hair! Goodness, and there is a scene where he returns to his old shop and is on his knees in front of a huge skylight type window that is almost identical to the scene in Scissorhands, just to name a few. I am beginning to wonder if there isn’t some three-way love affair going on between Burton, Depp and Carter, I demand a DNA test – maybe it’s Johnny’s baby (just kidding). Every director has their muse, but Tim – Marty moved from DeNiro to DiCaprio and you too can have another. Not saying that pairing is bad, it’s just not as fresh as it once was. (your wife is another story…chill out I kid!) Also it seems that Burton has become an adaptation master, 5 of his latest 6 full length films have been either movies or novels first. I love his original stuff and I wish he would do more of it (Scissorhands, Nightmare, Corpse Bride). That being said he does bring a fresh perspective to an old favorite and no one can argue with that. Back to the cast –wasn’t it nice to see a Harry Potter bad guy reunion? And how about that Sascha Baron Cohen playing a guy with a crazy accent (if you’ve seen the movie, I know what you are thinking – but still your first real role since that silly film you made and you had to pick a guy with an accent? My suggestion would be to not do that again or you’ll get screwed into doing it all the time and will never be taken seriousl.(i.e. Ben Stiller stuck in a stupid comedy rut)
My rating: 
I cheers to a fresh take on a gory musical and an extra little shot to the guy who wrote the musical because honestly it was a hit the first time too! Oh and a little bit of advice: skip the popcorn if the thought of eating ground up dead people makes you nauseous, it would be sad to be waste that 8 bucks.
