Subject: Sweeney Todd - The Dark Romance review
Content: Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Oh, this darkest of dark romances! From the first frame to the last, Tim Burton's movie version of Sweeney Todd is grimly beautiful and beautifully grim. From its first scene to its denoument, this most macabre of musicals presents humanity as a sad lot indeed, in the grip of personal obsessions and driven to commit unspeakable acts. The title sequence, rendered artfully like a storybook illustration, gives way to animation, as blood drips into the gears of an infernal machine - the machinery of a hellish barber chair, with gears that turn like the machinations of fate that we are about to witness. The story might just as well have been subtitled "The Things We Do For Love," because love is the motive behind the acts that seal each character's doom and unleash a bloodletting fit for a slaughterhouse. No, this movie is not intended for ordinary young children, maybe not even for morbid little Kindergoths. Johnny Depp is brilliant as a barber named Benjamin Barker - a man transformed by his thirst for revenge. After an evil judge of London's Old Bailey courthouse, Judge Turpin, uses the power of the law to falsely arrest and convict Barker as a means to steal his beautiful wife, the once-blessed barber returns years later to visit a curse on whoever wronged him. Like the homicidal alter ego of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde , Sweeney Todd is the murderous personna that takes the place of Benjamin Barker, transformed into a monster by hate and bitterness just as Jekyll was by his potions. Depp radiates malice and single-minded intent as he integrates himself into his long abandoned shop on Fleet Street. He wields his deadly razor like a baton, conducting a symphony of violence that is shocking in its graphic extremity. If there is one thing lacking in this presentation of Sweeney Todd , it's a libretto, particularly to accompany the vocals of Helena Bonham Carter, whose acting in the role of Mrs. Lovett is perfectly fine, but whose cockney inflected lyrics will probably only be understood in East London. The words to these songs are too fiendishly good to pass by unintelligibly. Johnny Depp performs his songs perfectly, as does the cast of young actors, most of whom make their film debut. Jayne Wisener was a castmember in a Derry, Ireland production of West Side Story when she was chosen for her role as Benjamin Barker's daughter Johanna, while her love interest played by Jamie Campbell Bower got his lucky break through a chance meeting with his friend and eventual co-star Laura Michelle Kelly. Tim Burton turns out to be the perfect director for the tale of the Demon Barber, with his love of gothic victoriana ideal in the creation of Sweeney's dark London. The film's color palette of gray is gorgeously somber, a perfect backdrop for little exclamations of blue and gold, and literal splashes and sprays of crimson. What's more, he's perhaps unintentionally created a strangely mirror-imaged companion piece to Edward Scissorhands. Quite often, in his whiteface make-up with darkly shadowed eyes, Johnny Depp resembles his previous incarnation as the scissor-handed orphan. Here we have two characters, each with razor sharp blades as extensions of themselves. We've seen Edward given scissor-hands by his creator, and in Sweeney Todd , we hear Benjamin/Sweeney exclaim, "at last, my arm is complete!" as he grips his silver-handled straight razor. Yet the pair are exact opposites, like bookends to Burton's career: Edward is naive and sweet, while Sweeney is worldly and callous. Edward cuts others with unintentioned helplessness, while Sweeney slices with murderous intent and premeditation. But are they both equally victims of circumstance? Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street directed by Tim Burton Starring Johnny Depp .................................Sweeney Todd / Benjamin Barker Helena Bonham Carter ...............Mrs. Lovett Sacha Baron Cohen ................... Signor Adolfo Pirelli Alan Rickman ................................Judge Turpin Timothy Spall .................................Beadle Bamford Christopher Lee ............................Gentleman Ghost Jayne Wisener ..............................Johanna Ed Sanders ...................................Tobias Ragg Jamie Campbell Bower ..............Anthony Hope Laura Michelle Kelly .....................Beggar Woman Rated R for graphic bloody violence.
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