Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) by Ricardo S — 29 Aug 2014

Sweeney Todd, in my opinion, is one of Tim Burton's best films, one of Johnny Depp's best films, and my favorite musical outside of Disney animated films like Lion King. Not counting Disney animated I haven't seen that many musical movies. At the time of this review I've seen Les Miserable, Chicago, Moulin Rouge, and now this. I think Sweeney Todd is definitely the best of them. The movie is not for everyone. It's not a happy movie, but musicals rarely are happy. It's about a psychotic barber that murders people so I knew it wouldn't be happy going in. It's definitely R rated in that it is very bloody and gory. Anyone who is uneasy with too much blood I would approach this with caution. Otherwise I think this is a must see if you love musicals or even if you don't.

The basic story is as follows. Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) returns to London after being in exile for fifteen years along with a friend of his who saved him. Fifteen years ago a man named Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) and his man-servant, Beadle (Timothy Spall) stole Todd's wife from him and locked him away for many years. He finds out that his wife poisoned herself not long afterwards and vows revenge. Throughout the film he delves deeper into madness which would eventually be his undoing. Meanwhile, Todd's friend falls in love with the judge's adopted daughter which turns out to be Todd's daughter.

Tim Burton is a hit or miss director for me. He's directed some good movies like Batman, Sleepy Hollow, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. However, he also directed Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Dark Shadows, which I thought were horrible movies. I know I'm going to get major flack for this but I didn't care for Edward Scissorhands either. I found it to be a very boring movie. I find his style overused. His gothic style was cool at first but if you use it in every one of your films it gets a bit stale and I'm beginning to wonder if he just relies on that style and can't make a movie without it. He also tends to recycle actors and other cast members in his films constantly like Johnny Depp or Danny Elfman for the scores. I get the feeling that people get wrapped-up in his style that they overlook the film's issues. However, I think he was the perfect choice for this film and he did a great job. I think his gothic style was quite appropriate for this type of subject matter in a period-piece and it added to the dreariness of it all.

The cast is great and everyone brought there A-game. I think this is one of Johnny Depp's best performances. This is probably my favorite performance by Helena Bonham Carter. The rest of the cast does great as well and they are all great singers. I loved all the musical numbers and everyone had a great singing voice. In other musicals I've seen like Les Miserable some people are miscast and can't sing very well especially Russell Crow and you get some painful singing at some points. Thankfully this film had none of those moments. I was worried that it would be a musical in which the characters sang every line of dialog like in Les Miserable which I'm personally not a fan of, but that wasn't the case either.

The characters were also good. This isn't like Moulin Rouge where everything looks great but the characters and story are flat. I love how there are no heroes in this movie. In fact, almost everyone is a villain. The judge is a villain, which isn't surprising since he's played by Snape from Harry Potter. Todd is a villain as well. I really like Sweeney Todd himself. He is a very charismatic character with a sad backstory that makes you feel sorry for him and root for him on some level despite all the horrible things he does throughout the film. You don't condone what he does but you see where he is coming from. I loved seeing him dive further and further into madness trying to achieve his goal of revenge and how that ultimately lead to his downfall. Those types of stories to me are more interesting than the typical good vs. evil.

I also like Lovett and I think she has great chemistry with Todd. Alan Rickman really knows how to play a despicable villain and the same with Timothy Spall who also coincidentally, played a character in Harry Potter. The rest of the cast did their job well.

If there is one thing I didn't really care for in the film it is one musical number between Todd and Lovett. Lovett is telling Todd to start over and have a new life with her in musical montage for which felt like it belonged in a different movie. It isn't bad on its own but it was out-of-place.

Overall, Sweeney Todd is an amazing musical and movie in general. Again, it's not for everyone. It's a largely dark film and it's definitely R-rated. Any fan of musicals owes it to themselves to view this.