A Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Thanks to the success of Chicago and Moulin Rouge, the musical movie has recently seen a revival. Hollywood has quickly turned other successful Broadway productions into big screen productions. For the most part, as in the case of Hairspray and The Phantom of the Opera, this has been entirely a good thing. However, Tim Burton’s version of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has a number of flaws that turn what could have been a good thing sour.
Sweeney Todd is a grim story of revenge set in the grimy streets of London at the turn of the 20th century. Johnny Depp plays a barber who has everything: a lovely wife and beautiful daughter. When an evil judge, played by Alan Rickman, becomes jealous of the barber’s wife, he sends him off to prison or Australia or something. The movie begins as the barber returns to London, vowing to exact his revenge.
If you enjoyed A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, or if you have ever liked a musical ever, or if you are a big Tim Burton fan you’ll probably find something to like about Sweeney Todd on one level or another. However, if you are bothered by people with ‘unconventional’ singing voices, like me, you’ll have a hard time enjoying this movie.
As Tim Burton is wont to do, he has put Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the starring roles. Even though Depp is one of our best actors, when it comes to singing ability, he comes somewhere between William Shatner and Scott Stapp. Carter sounds like she’s singing her lines out of a Lutheran Book of Worship, and thanks to Alan Rickman, I now have a good idea of how Henry Kissinger’s singing voice must sound.
But, other than that, there’s really nothing to complain about. The movie looks great, as long as you’re into the whole super emo/goth thing that it has going on. The music is a little too brassy, but other than that, it’s really not that bad.
Photo: Submitted