Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower

Dir. Tim Burton
Scr. John Logan (based on musical by Stephen Sondheim & Hugh Wheeler)

Tim Burton, as wonderfully original as he is, tends to split audiences and critics right down the middle. This film is no exception and my own opinion of it changes from minute-to-minute. There is little doubt that Sweeney Todd in Burton’s hands is a sight to behold, but something nags at me – something just doesn’t work. I can’t fault the vision and the execution of that vision. But, still, this film seems to lack something that might have made it great.

The film is a grim telling of the story of Benjamin Barker – a happily married barber, with a beautiful wife and child, who is arrested and sent away by a jealous and powerful man, Judge Turpin. Fifteen years later, a much changed man, Barker returns to London as the evil and disturbed Sweeney Todd, intent on revenge. Teaming up with pie shop owner, Mrs Lovett, Todd re-establishes his barber business and sets out to find his daughter and inflict much suffering on not only Turpin, but all the evil in London. Cue much blood, murder, accidental cannibalism and singing – the retelling of a not-so-typical and hugely successful Broadway musical.

Without a doubt, the best thing about Sweeney Todd is the way it looks and feels – Burton gives us a London so dark and grimy that you can almost smell the urine in the streets and feel the dirt under your fingernails. This film is an absolute visual treat – Burton brilliance comes from the way in which he can create a world, real or otherwise, and make us truly live it.

The acting here is okay. Depp and Burton are somewhat of a dream-team and I imagine Depp was Burton’s one and only choice to play Sweeney Todd. Burton is lucky that Depp not only does dark extremely well, but also that he has a healthy set of lungs in him – he’s not a phenomenal singer, but he does the job well enough and never slips out of character. It’s certainly not Depp’s best performance in a Burton film (both Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood would feature highly above this one), but I can’t imagine anyone else as Burton’s Sweeney Todd. A much better performance, in my view, is that given by Helena Bonham Carter as the morally dubious and often hilarious Mrs Lovett. Humour is integral in this dark tale, and many of the laughs come from Bonham Carter. And, boy, can she belt out a tune. Alan Rickman, as Judge Turpin, is a tad flat and perhaps doesn’t get enough screen time to really develop his character. In fact, the same might be said for the remainder of the cast, with the exception of Sacha Baron Cohen who shines in his small role. Apart from Sweeney and Mrs Lovett, we don’t really know enough about the rest of the characters – I just didn’t care about them and, therefore, when Sweeney cut their throats it was, well, a bit ho-hum.

The musical numbers in Sweeney Todd were a mixed bag. A couple were pretty good – catchy and clever. But many were just a bit boring, with uninspiring melody and predictable lyrics. I guess this is less a fault of the movie and more a criticism of the original musical. I didn’t exit the cinema humming a song (in fact, I could hardly recall one at all), and that’s a pretty essential element of a good musical film for me.

I’m glad I saw Sweeney Todd – the dark subject matter and humour and feel appealed to me greatly. And I was wowed by Bonham Carter and aspects of Depp’s performance. But, overall, this film wasn’t the thrill it could have been. And a word of warning – if you’re squeamish, avoid like the plague.

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Sweeney Todd: [holding up one of his razors] At last! My arm is complete again!