Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) by David I — 10 Oct 2015

Before I saw this movie I was excited. Finally a big screen, dark and twisted adaptation of one of my favorite musicals. Sadly Tim Burton must of been high on something because it was a dismal failure. Helena Bonham Carter obviously got the role for one reason, she was sleeping with the director. She cannot sing and she certainly was ill-fitted for the role. One thing Mrs. Lovett is is joyful in her misery. Instead we just had to suffer through HBC's misery. And could the costume designer make her look any more like her Harry Potter Character?

Johnny Depp was passable in his singing but everything else was like watching a drunken, bi-polar Captain Jack Sparrow on a depressive swing. Even in his joy at killing he was miserable and he took us with it. Anthony Stewart Head was in the cast but don't blink or you will miss him. Instead we are saddled with, and ridden hard and vomitously by a seriously badly cast Alan Rickman. Don't know what character he was playing and it does not matter because he failed all around. And he cannot sing and this is a musical.

Now if you can make exceptions for cutting half the dialog and destroying the music, it becomes ok, but no true fan of the original work could ever find this to be a pleasing adaptation.