Who better to tackle the slasher musical of Sweeney Todd than Tim Burton? No one that is who. It appears to be the perfect marriage of material to director and while Johnny Depp has toiled in being Mickey Mouse's personal hooker for the last few years, he seemed the perfect actor to tackle Tim Burton's Benjamin Barker/Sweeney Todd. The trailers were brilliant for those of us who knew what Sweeney Todd was. The Posters were perfectly creepy and intriguing. I could not have been more excited to see this movie adaptation of The Demon Barber's story. I have been unusually easy on the musicals that have been brought to the screen these last few years, finding things to like about The Producers and Rent, because I just enjoy watching musicals, but this movie would be something different. This movie was a marriage of so many great aspects that I knew it would be good. Was it?
Benjamin Barker(Depp) has a lovely bride and a lovely new born, but that is all ripped away from him when Judge Turpin(The ultra erotic exuding Alan Rickman) lays his eyes on his wife and puts Barker up on false charges and send him away. years later Barker returns a different man. he has a Rogue from X-Men white streak in his Einstein hair, he is pale white with awful bags under his eyes and he sings a dark, dreary tale of London. He is going by Sweeney Todd now and he has revenge on his mind. He meets up with Mrs. Lovett(Helena Bonham Carter) who tells him what happened to his wife and child and from there Sweeney has vowed to kill the judge. Sweeney sets his barber shop after beating Perrelli(Sascha Baron Cohen) in a barber-off and right quick, Judge Turpin is in his chair. They sing "Pretty Women" in the most normal scene int he movie, but before he can kill the judge they are interrupted by Anthony(the Homely looking Jamie Bower) telling Sweeney that he is going to rescue Johanna( The cleavage bearing Jayne Wisener) from the evil Judge. Johanna is Sweeney's missing daughter, adding to Sweeney's desire to murder the Judge. After this missed chance, Sweeney decides he is going to murder people for a living and Mrs. Lovett will bake them into pies and life will be good. But mostly, Sweeney still wants to get the Judge.
Before I begin reviewing this movie allow me say a few things. First off, I prefer acting to singing, so if the actor is perfect in the portraying of the character, I am okay with not super strong singing. Secondly, I am not a Sweeney Enthusiast, and lastly, I believe in separating source material from adaptations, so I will review this solely as a movie, mostly. Tim Burton has directed his most Tim Burtoniest movie ever. The whimsical magic of Big Fish is here. The creepy melancholy feel of Edward Scissorhands is here. The opening credits are Willy Wonka with blood instead of chocolate and the outright gore of Sleepy Hollow is also here. Visually this movie is about as stunning as I have seen this year. The dark, bleak look of Burton's London is gorgeously haunting and his camera work through the city in various places is breathtaking. All of the acting is top notch, except Cohen and Timothy Spall. Cohen's Pirelli's showmanship is too over the top for this movie and Spall is just bland in every way and his looks just don't seem right to me. Depp is better than he has been in like a decade, which isn't saying much, but his less angry, more morose Sweeney really worked for me and Carter is always a joy to watch and the look over her pie shop is another beautiful bleak picture. Rickman is a stand out and the young Ed Sanders is great and Toby, even if the movie robs him of a great moment in favor of something ridiculous.
That is about where the pluses end for me. This is such a great story and it has been botched in movie form. I am not sure why Burton decided to go with this glossy looking red for blood and why he decided blood would spill out of necks like a Tarantino flick, but it had me laughing hysterically throughout and I know that was not the desired effect at all. General creepiness gave way at about the 45 minute mark in favor of all out over the top gore and the final scene featuring the most ridiculous looking blood and splatter I have seen this side of a low rent Zombie movie. The final moments should be a lot of things but they should not be a laugh riot and that is what it amounted to for me and 70 other people in the theater. It took me right out of the picture and into some direct to video piece of garbage and it is beneath everyone involved. The movie should be epic but there were just things missing for me. I didn't mind the less than huge voices on the leads, as I think Depp's voice really added to his character, and "By The Sea" is a great number, vastly exceeding so many of the other songs.
I really did not think Burton could screw this up, but sometimes things that seem like perfect marriages, fail miserably and while this isn't miserable it is nowhere near what it could have been and should have been . A lot of the blame lies with Screen writer John Logan who should be better at this seeing as how he only writes big epics, but maybe he just doesn't understand this story. I am not entirely sure what I was looking for, but the pacing was off and while some of the great sexual tension and deep dark sexual undertones are there, especially when Depp has Rickman in his chair (Wow, really) it just feels incomplete in some way. It is worth seeing for sure, but I wanted to be scared or creeped out, not in tears from laughter!
Final Grade= B-
4 comments:
I can see where you are coming from with the blood, but I feel the blood was that way for a reason.
The blood ran differently with whoever was killed and why they were killed.
SPOILERS:
Such as, when Rickman is killed it is the most bloody because it is the most full filling to Todd. It is violent crazy and just... damn...
And when Todd dies the blood flows out like tears ending in a hauntingly beautiful last shot. I need to review a bunch of movies really, I'm way behind because of "The Death of Joe Britz."
I did really love this movie (as I love the musical) and feel it is Depp's best performance other than Gilbert Grape and Burton's best movie, period
SPOILERS!
I didn;'t mind the Rickman death because of how violently he was killed, but that last shot was just so hilarious. Johnny Depp has the amount of blood to make a sea of blood, really? Who knew.
I would put Depp's performance in his top 3 for sure. The other two being Gilber Grape and Blood Diamond, but as far as Burton goes come on Beetlejuice, Ed Wood(HIs best) Edward Scissorhands are all better. He had me through the first 45 minutes of this and I sitll think his version of London is spectacular.
Bah, I meant Ed Wood, not Blood Diamond! Got my damn Gilbert Grape actors mixed up!
SPOILERS!
Depp didn't supply a sea of blood.
He supplied a lot, but it dripped out like tears onto his wife. It looked beautiful and were the emotions that Todd was not able to enact.
Joanna, while always a beautiful song, has always been played for laughs. The violence was also nessacary to show the difference that he didn't care if people didn't have a family, but when they did, he didn't want to rid them of the family.
In fact, I would only say there are 3 violent parts of the entire movie.
I easily rank this movie above Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands (and I love both films). Now, I will give you Ed Wood as his best since it has been difficult for me to say that Sweeney Todd is better than Ed Wood. Very hard indeed.
I also think it is good how they made it work as a movie musical as not trying to exactly shoot the stage version. They made it work a lot better by having the actors slip in and out of dialouge and singing without big pauses (like RENT and The Producers which felt like it was wanting applause after each number) and cutting out the ensemble. It wouldn't have worked in the film.
Now, after my 2nd viewing, I will give you that, during Johana he might have gone a little overboard with the blood, but I still firmly stand on the last scene. Both times I've seen it the audience was speechless after the film with that great positive buzz in the audience.
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