Movie Review for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

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Review #589 of 365
Movie Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) [R] 117 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $14.25
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When Seen: 22 December 2007
Time: 10:40 pm
DVD Release Date: 1 April 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer

Soundtrack: Download now from - or - order the CD below

Directed by: Tim Burton (Corpse Bride)
Screenplay by: John Logan (The Aviator) based on the musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler

Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End) • Helena Bonham Carter (HP: Order of the Phoenix) • Alan Rickman (HP: Order of the Phoenix) • Timothy Spall (Enchanted) • Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan) • Jamie Campbell Bower (The Dinner Party) • Laura Michelle Kelly (Marple: Nemesis) • Jayne Wisener (debut) • Ed Sanders (debut)

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Click to see photos from the Premiere of Sweeney Todd (2007)

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If Tim Burton was planning a sequel to Edward Scissorhands to reunite Johnny Depp with blades, he sort of got his wish in his direction of the translation of the acclaimed Stephen Sondheim musical "Sweeney Todd" to film. Not every stage musical adjusts well to the motion picture medium, and some would say none do except those that one has not seen on stage first. Partly because of the surprisingly seductive portrayal of the leading venge-meister by Johnny Depp and partly because of Tim Burton's keen eye for dark scale, the transition amounts to something nearly quite as spectacular as it is sinister. The opening credits offer an evil organ's foreboding glimpse as to what dark treachery lies ahead. Ending on an upbeat note, though, swiftly they are interrupted by the opening song. As if touched by the hand of Leonard Cohen himself, a singing Johnny Depp comes to life as Sweeney Todd. Jamie Campbell Bower plays Anthony Hope, the ensign who spotted him adrift after escaping prison in Australia. They open the film with the famous Sondheim duet aboard a ship sailing up the Thames with each revealing a contrasting view of the capital city. As their melodies and perspectives clash, they arrive in port. They disembark and part ways, but something seems to suggest their fates will force them together again.

As Sweeney Todd returns to his former home on Fleet Street, his tragic history is revealed. The malevolent Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) found Todd's wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly) beautiful and deserving of better than a mere barber. He has the barber arrested and imprisoned for crimes he did not commit and makes Lucy the object of his lust. That is the last Sweeney Todd knew. His former land-lady who ran the shop below their apartment, Mrs. Lovett (Helen Bonham Carter), however, stands now all too eager to fill in the gaps of history. The Judge, she claims, drove Lucy to poison herself, and then he adopted their daughter, Johanna, taking her as his ward. Upon the judge taking away young Johanna, Mrs. Lovett had hidden away Todd's shaving blades under the floorboards for him in case he ever returned. Upon seeing them again for the first time, his old friends , he hatches a plan to exact his revenge while she sings her eternal yet unrequited love.

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… as spectacular as it is sinister…

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He will, under the auspices of a shave, slit the Judge's throat. To make this happen, the pair travel to the morning market where Sweeney Todd challenges the great Signor Adolfo Pirelli (Sacha Baron Cohen), thought to be the best barber in all of London, to a duel of sorts. Whomsoever cuts and shaves a willing patron the fastest and the closest shall win £5. Judge Turpin's henchman, Beadle Bamford (Timothy Spall) serves as the 'randomly' selected judge of the contest that Sweeney eventually wins. The purpose, however, is to attract the attention of Bamford and, hopefully, inspire him to bring the Judge Sweeney Todd's way. Meanwhile, Anthony Hope stumbles upon a singing Johanna (Jayne Wisener) now nearly grown up. She's locked in her room atop the Judge's mansion; and, like a nightingale in a gilded cage, she longs to be free. For them, it is love at first song. Later, Signor Adolfo Pirelli appears out of the blue back at the pie shop and wants to see Mr. Todd. After an attempt at blackmailing him goes wrong, Pirelli ends up dead in a trunk. And, it is from this that Todd and Lovett hatch a most gruesomely, cannibalistic plan. In near "Romeo and Juliet" fashion, the story holds many more tragic consequences with twists and turns for Sweeney Todd.

A dismal story of failed redemption, Sweeney Todd, represents the good and the bad as far as musicals-turned-movies go. While the songs are haunting at their best and needlessly repetitive at their worst, none is truly a standout despite the brilliance of the Sondheim legend, yet their combined effect is powerful—truly a grand example of the whole exceeding the sum of the parts. The leads carry their characters exquisitely well in and amongst the bloodshed that occurs and the musical numbers that ensue—sometimes, as they categorically do in musicals, quite out of the blue. What makes the film work through all this? Johnny Depp so beautifully conveys the tortured soul inside a man who had his life's rug unjustly pulled literally out from under him and the madness that consumes him and fuels his rage for revenge. Make no mistake this musical is a complete tragedy with no room for an uplifting ending or even suggestive final scene—Johanna could be dead for a lack of oxygen in that trunk for all we know (kept vague so as not to spoil it too much).

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Depp…beautifully conveys the tortured soul…and the madness that…fuels his rage for revenge.

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This is a serial killer's blood bath where a mechanical chair becomes as much a character in the story as a means to the end of those dispatched without mercy by the demon barber of Fleet Street. Helen Bonham Carter, like Depp, stays beautiful despite makeup and hair artfully designed to rob them both of all color and, subsequently, appearance of life. With Pirelli, came a young servant boy, Toby (Ed Sanders) whom Mrs. Lovett absorbs into their lives as her apprentice pie maker. Young Ed Sanders carries his own in the film with an incredibly potent and lovely number, directed to his would-be mum that, as everything else in the story does, foreshadows and then evolves into a tune for his own intended demise. The interesting and debonair Jamie Campbell Bower links Todd's past and future as he woos Johanna and tries to free her from her life of imprisonment. His most dynamic number is heart wrenching. At the climax of the story, mistaken identities and mysteries will be unlocked leading to a violent and bloody conclusion of misfortune.

The dark ending to this dark escapade seals the fate of this musical qualifying it as a spectacular downer. There's no question as to the overall achievement of the filmmaking: the acting, directing, lighting, music, special effects, costumes, make-up are all universally of the highest skills around, it's just hard to leave with a sense of anything other than deep and lasting regret. Such is, however, the intent of pure tragedy. See Sweeney Todd knowing what you are getting into and enjoy it for its wondrous artistry. Go because you're a Depp fan and have a hard time believing the chap can really sing—he can and he's brilliant. Judge its success in translation—loss of an hour vs. the length of the musical—and reworking of some of the songs. Yet, understand this is not a film for the weak of stomach or heart and certainly not for children. Plan something uplifting for afterwards to take your mind off this eerie and sad depress fest.

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Other Projects Featuring Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Cast Members
Johnny Depp • Helena Bonham Carter • Alan Rickman
Timothy Spall • Sacha Baron Cohen • Jamie Campbell Bower
Laura Michelle Kelly • Jayne Wisener • Ed Sanders
Director
Tim Burton
Writer
John Logan

Book	CD Soundtrack	DVD
VHS	Collector's Poster	Collector's Poster
Related Product	Related Product	Related Product

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Review-lite Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) [max of 150 words]

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As sinister as it is spectacular, Tim Burton's adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's acclaimed Broadway Musical, Sweeney Todd, rises from the darkness on the incredible performances of leads Helen Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp. Unbelievably, these two sing their songs and carry the story of a barber who is falsely imprisoned so that the judge and accuser can pursue his wife and adopt his child. A bloody, horribly tragic film culminates with mistaken identities as Todd must reconcile his vengeful serial murders with the hope of restoring the long-lost love of his daughter, Johanna. The dark ending seals the fate qualifying it as a spectacular downer. There's no question as to the overall achievement of the filmmaking: the acting, directing, lighting, music, special effects, costumes, make-up are all universally of the highest skills around, it's just hard to leave with a sense of anything other than deep and lasting regret.

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