Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
A Review
By Josh Gloer
Do you like musicals? I mean REALLY like musicals? You need to watch some. Seriously, you need to do some research. I'm not talking about Rent or Phantom of the Opera. Watch some other musicals you've never heard of. If you like those, then check out Sweeney Todd. Otherwise...
I first heard of this musical in 2004's Jersey Girl. A school performance demands a parent student performance of a scene for a musical. The result was heart warming and hilarious rendition of a scene from Sweeney Todd starring George Carlin, Ben Affleck and Raquel Castro. While inappropriate for a school performance, the idea of a barber chopping off customer's heads to make meat pies was intriguing to this horror buff. Half a decade later, with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp attached to bring this musical to the screen, I have to admit, I was excited.
I was let down.
Warning: SPOILER!! (But trust me, you'll see it coming.)
In a nutshell, Barber was wronged. Barber seeks revenge. Barber screws himself. Barber gets killed. Johnny Depp plays Sweeney Todd, a barber who's wife was taken from him as a young man. He was sent into exile. Decades go by before he's able to return to London, and he returns with a vengeance. He live only to kill the man who stole his wife, and newborn daughter - Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman).
Todd joins forces with Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who sells London's worst meat pies. She's too poor to afford proper meat, and he needs a place to get rid of his victims, and ergo, the perfect solution presents it self - Human meat pies.
Todd kills aimlessly for about an hour of screen time, and the meat pies climb the culinary ladder. But a beggar woman continues to pester the shop. Depp kills her only to find out that she is his long lost wife. Moments later, Toby (Ed Sanders) kills Todd.
Fade to black. No seriously. That's it.
I love Tim Burton. I love Johnny Depp. I love Helena Bonham carter. And I love Alan Rickman. The music was decent, the performances were ok, and there just isn't enough to make this grain of story into a loaf of movie. It just falls flat. Pardon the meat pie puns.
Just... rent this. Please. Donate your $12.50 to charity or the One Harsh Critic Movie Ticket Fund. Its just not that good.
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Josh Gloer, Movie Correspondent
You can find Josh's column One Harsh Critic, published every other Sunday night at http://oneharshcritic.gather.com.
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Comments: 20
My daughter went to see this and loved it. She's a BIG musical fan and wants to major in theater AND she loves Johnny Depp, HBC and Tim Burton. She did say it's extremely gory though.
I trust your assessment of the merits of the story. I'll wait on this one.
I've always wondered if it would translate onto the movie screen with that kind of intensity. Thanks for your review - it makes me want to wait until the DVD is released. Although, if anybody can do a good job with this morbid material, it's Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.
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U wishing you laughter
In the adaptation, a lot of musical numbers were omitted, some of which were essential to the understanding of the story. One glaring example is the romance between Johanna and the sailor Anthony. In the stage production, a series of songs and dialogue develop the romance so that the audience understands why Anthony is determined to take Johanna away from Judge Turpin and, more importantly, why she is prepared to go with him. In the film, Johanna does no more than see Anthony from her window, and the audience is expected to believe that that glance is enough reason for Johanna to be prepared to run away with the sailor, no questions asked.
The singing often leaves much to be desired. Johnny Depp sings adequately but not remarkably. Helena Bonham Carter, however, does her vocal part a grave injustice; she simply cannot handle the load that she's asked to carry. The minor characters, while their acting may be forgettable, sing better -- if indeed they really are singing; I admit that I wasn't around to check the end credits to do a match-up for them all. The omission of a chorus in the film is sadly missed; it might have helped perk up the rather sad musical performances as well as transform the overly tragic tone of the film into the ballad that the original stage version was.
For people who really want to see the musical, the Entertainment Channel stage version is available on DVD. It places a lot more emphasis on the play than on seeing how much blood can be spurted forward with every knife stroke, which seems to be Tim Burton's fixation in the film. The stage version still looks and sounds better.
I admit, since I was part of the cast of Sweeney Todd for my school's play, the music of the movie kind of threw me a curveball, but I still say it is okay. All movie musicals never have the same music as their inspirations. This is no reason to condemn them. Sweeney Todd remains one of my favorite musicals, both movie and stage.
Frankly, Tim Burton scares me. But my fandom for Johnny Depp and my adoration of Alan Rickman teased me into renting the DVD. Eoow! Didn't like the music, didn't like the sets, was completely grossed out by the gore (and I like horror) and bored out my skull with the whole thing. It was just too 'out there' for me.