Sweeney Todd
Friday, 25 Jan 2008 09:29
Johnny Depp stars as the bloodthirsty barber.
Directed by Tim Burton, out in cinemas 25th January, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman, running time 117 mins.
In a nutshell…
People seek shave, become pies.
What's it all about?
Once a respected barber known as Benjamin Barker, Sweeney Todd returns to London after years spent in hard exile for a crime he did not commit. Finding his wife dead and his daughter under the control of the corrupt Judge who sentenced him, Todd once again sets up his barber shop above Mrs Lovett's pie shop.
With a flick of his razor, Todd ends the lives of his patrons and sends them crashing into the kitchens of the pie shop below. Once grinded into meat pie filling, victims become 'the best pies in London'.
And, oh yes, it's a musical.
Who's in it?
Johnny Depp stars in the central lead of Sweeney Todd, and his performance under Burton is once again superb. Delicately balancing the homicidal madness of Todd and the desperate sadness of his past, Depp is simultaneously as charming and adept as always.
Helena Bonham Carter is also excellent as Todd's accomplice Mrs Lovett. Her unrequited love for Todd adds aching poignancy as an undercurrent to the bloody melee.
Lip-curling Alan Rickman is dependably first-rate as corrupt Judge Turpin, and Timothy Spall is as slimy as ever as Beedle Bamford.
Sacha Baron Cohen almost steals the show as a flamboyant Italian rival barber.
As an example…
Mrs Lovett: "Mr. T, you didn't!"
[looks into the chest, sees the dead body and gasps. Shuts it]
Mrs Lovett: "You're barking mad! Killing a man what done ya no harm!"
Sweeney Todd: [polishing his razor] "He recognised me from the old days. Tried to blackmail me. Half me earnings."
Mrs Lovett: [relieved] "Oh, well that's a different matter then. For a moment there I thought you lost your marbles."
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
Sweeney Todd has won several Golden Globes and has already been nominated for three Oscars, including best achievement in art direction, best achievement in costume design and, of course, best actor for Johnny Depp.
It is unfortunately unlikely that Depp will win, merely due to the movie's blood-spattered content, but art direction and costume design may be a fair bet in more forgiving categories.
What the others say
"Sweeney Todd offers a protagonist so consumed with hatred he can only have a real relationship with his favourite razors (subject of the show's big love song, My Friends) and a crass cook horribly in love with a man-monster who only notices her when she suggests cannibalism as a solution to his corpse-disposal problem." – Empire
"It's an entertaining, unscary digital ride through the London Dungeon, accompanied by classy music. Likeable: but no masterpiece." – Guardian
So is it any good?
As with so many Burton films, Sweeney Todd is drained of colour but not of substance. Each frame is doused in sepia tones, the world made up of dismal blacks and startling whites, 19th century London struggling to be lit by sputtering streetlamps barely daring to split the darkness. If other directors included into the city backdrop Tower Bridge in a time before it was built, it would be assumed as a dreadful gaffe – with Burton you are readily assured he purposefully left it as a welcome addition to the gothic landscape.
The characters are as gloomy as the backdrop, ghastly waxen skin and hollow eyes reinforcing the sins within. Helena Bonham Carter in particular reminds of a wild-haired doll so pale is her skin and dark her shadows.
All the acting is wonderful to witness, with superb turns from Sacha Baron Cohen as a splash of colour within the grey world and Timothy Spall as an evil sidekick. Depp is fully deserving of his Golden Globe win and Oscar nomination, with the crazed look of Todd alongside the despondent grief of Barker a joy to behold.
The only colour surviving the draining greyness is the Hammer Horror vibrant crimson of the blood. As Todd eagerly slashes the jugulars of his customers the red stuff is certainly not spared, and gallons of it is included, even spraying the camera at one point. The viscous arterial spurting is not however the most horrifying of effects, with the squelching and crunching of the bodies as they hurtle head-first into Mrs Lovett's bakery a frequent eye-wateringly wincing moment.
But critically, can a film drowning in black, white and red, combining the themes of brutal murder and cannibalism, succeed as a cinematic musical? It sounds doubtful, but strangely and fascinatingly it works. Based upon Sondheim's 1970s musical, the songs are not exactly toe-tapping but are haunting, gritty and as unique as the styling. The black humour shines through, with a particularly delightful sequence describing how different people will taste.
And the big question: can Depp sing? Perhaps sickeningly, he can. He has promised to never sing on screen again, which if true would be a shame, for his deep cockney tones remind of David Bowie. All the cast sing very well indeed, with Sacha Baron Cohen in a hilariously thick Italian accent and Helena Bonham Carter proving why she fully deserved the role.
Perhaps an acquired taste, but this slice of blood-spattered pie is satisfying indeed…
8/10
Melanie Green
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