Films: Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd (2007)
Dir. Tim Burton
Cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower

I know what you're thinking; It's a Tim Burton movie, featuring Tim Burton's brat pack. But can I say that it is so much more than that?!

Honestly, I was getting a bit tired of the Depp/Bonham Carter duo where Tim Burton is concerned. Perhaps he's trying to say he doesn't like change. Nobody understands Burton like the slightly dark, quirky misfits that these two actors always seem to come across as. However, I do not think that anyone else could have played the two leads in Sweeney Todd so convincingly.

Todd/Benjamin Barker and Mrs Lovett enter into a cruel and disturbed world of murder and cannabalism in order to avenge Todd's wife and daughter, stolen from him by the vicious Judge Turpin (Rickman, who may have been born to play the villain). Though the subject matter is bleak, the film plays out in typically Burtonesque visual glory and is spattered with black, occasionally uncomfortable, comedy. Depp's performance as the 'Demon Barber of Fleet Street' is fantastic. I didn't know whether to feel sorry for him or appauled by him. Likewise Bonham Carter's Mrs Lovett, whose silly infatuation for Todd leads her into a squalid life of crime. The two of them are simultaneoulsy terrible and loveable, and that's a lot to deal with in 116 minutes.

The whole film is shot in greys and blacks, with great sweeping shots of the murky London skyline, and the occasional glint of sharpened metal in Todd's derelict barber shop. Visually, this film is completely perfect. I begin to wonder whether Burton was born to direct this film. His sensitivity to imagery, colour and timing is absolutely spot-on. I'm not going to lie and say that the blood and gore is tame. It's bloody. Though, a word of warning would be that the slicing of people's throats becomes less uncomfortable than the grotesque manner in which Todd removes the bodies from his barber shop. It is an 18 certificate, and you have been warned. And then there's the music.

This film could have gone so terribly wrong on the back of a dreadful mistake in choosing to make it a musical. Thanksfully, it was quite the opposite. Sondheim and Wheeler's soundtrack is a masterpiece. I didn't even care that they were breaking into song every 2 minutes, in fact, I began to not even notice. The songs seem to flow in and out of the dialogue as though that were completely normal. Depp is a very talented singer (though some time a little nasal, with pangs of Jack Sparrow) and Bonham Carter's warbling cockney voice lends humour to every word she sings. Even Rickman gives it a try and he gets by.

Other performances of note are that of Timothy Spall, who is so accomplised at playing a weasly sidekick that he may never be offered another role again, and the naive, boyish Jamie Campbell Power. Sacha Baron Cohen, better known as Kazakh tv talking head, Borat, and Staines' very own Ali G, lends the film his own brand of ridiculous humour in one of the film's best scenes.

My only criticism is that too many cast members have 3 names where 2 is perfectly adequate, making reviewing a slightly laborious process. Otherwise, prepare yourself for a darkly satirical, disturbingly comical, musically wonderful 2 hours at the cinema.

My rating: **** 4/5 stars
Recommendation: Get past the gore and admire a beautifully directed and performed piece of cinema.