With its dark humour,
recurring black-and-white striped
colour schemes, pale-faced antiheroes
and Johnny Depp, Sweeney
Todd is a distillation of what makes Tim
Burton's films so distinctive.
The tale focuses former barber
Benjamin Barker (Depp) who returns to
"the pit" of London under the new name
of Sweeney Todd 15 years after being deported
for a crime he didn't commit.
The man behind his deportation, the creepy
Judge Turpin, expertly played by Alan Rickman,
got him out of the way to get his hands on
Barker's beautiful bride.
On his return Todd hears his wife poisoned
herself after being publicly disgraced by the
judge. He vows revenge, enlisting the help of
pie-maker Mrs Lovett (Bonham Carter) and his
"friends" - his silver cut-throat razors.
Anyone who is turned off by the idea of going
to watch a musical has nothing to fear. The
songs are integral to the plot but there are no
Oliver!-esque street scenes with barrow boys
kicking up their heels.
Instead the songs reveal the frequently dark,
innermost thoughts of its characters and give us
an idea of their true intentions.
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Much has been made of Depp's lack of
musical experience prior to the film, but he
acquits himself well, his powerful voice pitched
somewhere between David Essex and
David Bowie at his most Cockney. His duet
with Rickman as the judge sits in the barber's
chair is one of the highlights of the film.
There is more than an echo of Burton's
Edward Scissorhands in Depp's portrayal
of the sinned-against Todd as he cluches a
shiny razor in each hand with his straggly black
hair, dark eyes and pale skin.
Burton's Victorian London is squalid and dark,
both in the floury confines of Mrs Lovett's buginfested
pie shop and out in the grey streets that
Burton's cameras sweep freely around.
The judge's beautiful mansion is even
more menacing, where he peers through
spyholes at Todd's young daughter, who
he has kept captive for 15 years.
There is a vein of dark humour throughout,
with Sacha Baron Cohen's potentially filmstealing
appearance as an arrogant rival barber
and Mrs Lovett's fantasies about starting a new
life with the hugely depressed Todd.
But by the end the
film has turned into a
bloody tragedy. It is the
rivers of blood that have
caused the controversial
18-certificate, making
Sweeney Todd one of the
few "adults-only"
musicals in the UK,
joining South Park creator
Trey Parker's 2004
straight-to-video Cannibal
The Musical and Jerry
Springer: The Opera.
Burton has not
glamorised Todd's crimes.
His depictions of the
murders are very brutal and
close-up, before the bodies
are unceremoniously
dumped on Mrs Lovett's
bakery floor.
But it is a world away from
the gleeful sadism of Saw and
Hostel and it seems an insult
that a great piece of cinema like
this should be awarded the same
certificate as a "video nasty".
Posted by: Flat Foot Soozie, Brunswick Square on 9:28pm Sun 27 Jan 08
What does the Argus mean by saying that this review of Sweeney Todd is "exclusive"?
The film is out, many people are reviewing it, and therefore each review is "exclusive".
But true, it's absurd it should have an 18 certificate. And I just wish that Sondheim would be as prolific as he used to be rather than take all these years between shows. Passion might yet get its due.
What does the Argus mean by saying that this review of Sweeney Todd is "exclusive"?
The film is out, many people are reviewing it, and therefore each review is "exclusive".
But true, it's absurd it should have an 18 certificate. And I just wish that Sondheim would be as prolific as he used to be rather than take all these years between shows. Passion might yet get its due.
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