A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Date Viewed: 1/5/08

Details:

Johnny Depp

Helena Bonham Carter

Alan Rickman

Timothy Spall

Sacha Baron Cohen

Jamie Campbell Bower

Laura Michelle Kelly

Jayne Wisener

Director: Tim Burton

Music: Stephen Sondheim & Hugh Wheeler

Score: 0

The Review: There's a first Sondheim for everyone -- this was mine. Crudely put, it concerns murder, cannibalism, lost love and cold revenge. But buried among the gore and the singing is some pathos and pathology.

It's the late 1800's, and the English justice system is flawed ("no shit, Sherlock"). Crooked judges cook the books, conceal the real crimes, and transport or institutionalize the innocents. Such is the background for Sweeny Todd (Depp), the assumed name of a returned (escaped?) transportee who sets about to engineer his revenge on the judge (Rickman) who wrongly sentenced him because he coveted Todd's young wife, and, coincidentally, lo these many years later, is also lusting after his ward, their daughter (Wisener). Falling in with the baker of "the worst pies in London" (Bonham Carter), the plotting begins, as well as a contest for deepest depravity.

Make no mistake, this is a musical in grand style. However, Sondheim songs (hearing them for the first time) are almost Gilbert & Sullivan patter songs -- too many words splayed across too few notes. Generally. Although there are exceptions that approach operatic stature ("I Will Have Vengeance" is particularly good). Having watched Depp in many different roles over the decades, the surprise is that not only can he sing, he can sing rather well. Even Rickman, not known for his warbling, can carry a tune.

Even without the subject matter, this film is unmistakably by Tim Burton -- a dark, bleak, nearly monochromatic vision of the back alleys of London in the darkest of sooty, coal-burning Victorian times. And then, of course, there's Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, without whom a Burton film simply wouldn't be the same.

Parts are excellent (the atmosphere, for one), parts are extremely gory and repulsive. I have decidedly mixed feelings about this one, and I have no experience to know if this is typical Sondheim or not.

(5-Jan-08)

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