Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) by J Brigham H — 15 Oct 2012

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET is my unequivocal favorite of Tim Burton's filmography. It's not the most Burtonesque of his films, but it thrives on his Gothic German Expressionism style and a more polished production than most of his films.

Like Burton's SLEEPY HOLLOW, this also pays heavy tribute to the old Hammer Horror films, with explosive geysers of fluorescent red blood, but it's fitted with a better story and a musical format.

The musical numbers match the dark art direction, pulsating with passionate emotion, angry brooding and and unfulfilled yearning. Even still, humor is provided in a razor sharp form, thoroughly macabre and demented.

The actors all provide their own vocals, all of which are at least serviceable if not great, and it enhances the raw emotion of it all, and help keep the actors in tone with the songs. The story, characters and performances are all richly inspired with Depp's Sweeney, a ruined man, fallen from grace, obsessed with revenge and void of morality at the center.

Slightly to the side and a half-step up in moral character is Carter's Mrs. Lovett; a mixed bag of psychopathy and sweet natured-ness, consumed by an unrequited love. The baddies are perfect, with the ever-wonderful Rickman as the atrociously lurid and amoral Judge Turpin, and Spall at his best as the judge's flunky with an oily personality.

To provide a bit of decent humanity, there's the romantic subplot between Bower and Wisener, while Cohen makes an energetic comic appearance as a flamboyant barber. The whole product is a thoroughly demented darkness, hilariously gruesome and stylishly R-rated.