Sweeney Todd - Movie Review

Having seen the stage version of this musical some years ago, I was somewhat open minded about how Tim Burton would approach this project. Having Johnny Depp as your leading man means that you're at least assured that you'll get some significant footfall for this movie, even those who wouldn't normally venture to see a musical, may make the effort just to see Mr Depp's vocal performance of the demon barber of fleet street. I was somewhat disappointed in his portrayal. Sweeney Todd seemed to be an amalgamation of three of his previous characters, Edward Scissorhands (for moodiness), Inspector Abberline (from Hell, for mumbling British accent) and Jack Sparrow (for camp flair). Depp's mockney accent became more distracting when singing, although give him his due, he did carry this off quite well.

The film itself, was, as the subject matter dictated to some degree, dark, with washed out colours and stark grubby sets, setting the scene of a rat infested cesspit of London. The seem less CGI was impressive and I began wondering what was a special effects and what wasn't.

Helena Bonham Carter, who also surprisingly could hold a note, seemed to have lifted her entire deranged character directly from her Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix portrayal of Bellatrix Lestrange. I found it hard to warm to her character, even when she was showing kindness and warmth to the young Toby (Ed Sanders). Now, there's a young man who can really sing. His rendition of "Not While I'm Around" was very moving.

I enjoyed Sacha Baron Cohen's performance as Signor Pirelli, it was worth the entrance fee just to see him in his fantastically camp costume.

Overall, I thought that the film relied too much on its gore and bloodletting. I found some of the scenes distasteful and unnecessarily bloodthirsty, but I suppose in hindsight, they were in context for the film and Mr Burton does have a tendency to lean heavily on the Gothic side with his vision for movies.

I can't say that I didn't enjoy the film, but I tend to rate films on whether I would buy the DVD when it's released. In this case it's a definite, "No".