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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Dreamworks Pictures
Directed By: Tim Burton
Written By: John Logan
Music and Lyrics By: Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler
Produced By: John Logan, Laurie MacDonald, Richard D. Zanuck
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jayne Wisener, Ed Sanders, Laura Michelle Kelly
Review Date: December 22, 2007
Alex's Rating: B+
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I find if difficult to analyze a movie musical whose source material I am very familiar with. I have watched the VHS of Harold Prince and Terry Hughes’s staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd many times and the soundtrack is a favorite of mine to sing along with. So when I heard that a new film adaptation of the hit musical was being done, I reacted the same as if there was going to be a new staging of the musical. In my head nothing could beat the original, but I would see it to reignite my love for Sondheim’s masterpiece.
When I found out Tim Burton was directing my excitement was increased. I am not a huge fan of the dark one, as he is known, but I knew that his sinister, fantastical style would be a perfect match for Sondheim’s music and lyrics. I could not wait to see what was in store.
And I was quite pleased with what I saw.
Burton’s Sweeney Todd is exactly what a film adaptation of a stage musical should be. It was faithful to the original production while at the same time establishing itself as something that can stand on its own. The film kept a lot of theatricality without feeling too “stagey.” All of the images in the film are so fitting to the music and the incredibly evil nature of the central characters. Everything came together to make a very good movie.
BUT, and this is a big but, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were not the right voices for the part. Johnny sounds far too rock and roll and lacks the rich baritone sound that I have come to associate with the demon barber. Helena Bonham Carter flat out can not sing and she tries to make up for this fact by doing some sort of combination of talk singing and using whisper tones. Don’t get me wrong, both were fantastic when there was no singing, but it was hard for me to get into the songs with these voices.
For those who aren’t aware the story of Sweeney Todd is about a barber who was wrongly jailed because a corrupt judge was after his wife. He returns from jail years later to learn that his wife has died and his daughter is being held by the evil judge. He seeks his vengeance by opening a barber shop where he slits the throats of his patrons and his accomplice, Mrs. Lovett bakes the bodies into meat pies.
Don’t let me sound too grumpy. I really enjoyed the movie aside from the singing of the central characters. The blood was flowing and in gloriously gory fashion. Kudos has to go to the art directing department for making the red of the blood stick out so wonderfully against the dark surroundings. The blood was almost a character itself, appearing at the most appropriate moments and decorating Sweeney’s barber shop.
The film had some great campy moments including a hilarious musical number displaying Mrs. Lovett’s unrequited love for Mr. Todd. Also, a definite scene stealer was Sacha Baron Cohen as the faux barber Signor Adolfo Pirelli. This time garnering a cheesy Italian accent, effeminate hairstyle, and wonderfully hideous purple costume Mr. Cohen does what he does best, providing an over the top comic performance that would make anybody crack a smile.
I really appreciate Burton’s attention to detail. Even the seemingly innocent characters Anthony Hope, Johanna, and Toby have something off about them. Minor physical defects like crooked teeth or matted hair creates the feeling that there really is no good left in London. As Sweeney puts it: “there’s a whole in the world like a great black pit / and it’s filled with people who are filled with shit / and the vermin of the world inhabit it / and it goes by the name of London.”
The film was technically very sound. The costumes were gorgeous and better than any of the stage versions I have seen. The sound mixing was brilliant with some the eerie orchestration setting the mood perfectly.
Tim Burton deserves both a tip of the hat and a wag of the finger (stealing Stephen Colbert’s terminology) for Sweeney Todd. He made this amazing Sondheim musical a new project able to hold its own as one of the finest films this year. However, his insistence on casting his wife and his friend as the leads is what kept this film from being near perfect.
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