**SPOILER ALERT**Consider this your warning: If you're NOT familiar with the musical anyway, or just don't want to know anything about the plot or how it's executed in the film, STOP READING NOW. Because I will be including plot spoilers. You have been warned.
First off, let me say that if you're queasy about blood, do NOT get popcorn, particularly for the last half hour or so! Overall, I really liked it! Tim Burton, through his gorgeous cinematography and twisted spirit, captured the essence of the musical beautifully. Visually, it couldn't have been any more accurate. I will get to the music momentarily; before that, however, I will expound on what I thought were the low points of the film. These can really be summarized by three words: Helena Bonham Carter. Everyone was so worried about whether or not Johnny Depp could sing, but this is where the focus should've been! She could keep a tune, sure, but her voice was way too frail and breathy to be Mrs. Lovett. And I know HBC doesn't want people to think that she only got the role through nepotism and having Burton's babies and all, but, really, what are we supposed to think? And I had a problem with her interpretation of Mrs. Lovett. I had always seen her as very forceful and rather flippant, which is what made Mrs. Lovett so fun. But HBC's Mrs. Lovett was so serious! She was actually kinda depressing...To each their own, I suppose, but her version of Mrs. Lovett seemed deflated compared to, say, Patti Lupone's in the revival.
Of course, if you don't know the musical, that won't matter to you!
The rest of it, however, is absolutely brilliantly acted! Johnny Depp is abso-freaking INSANE in this film! As we all knew he would, he acted the hell out of Sweeney Todd, and his voice was perfectly adequate. It didn't blow me out of the water, no, but he pulled off "Pretty Women" beautifully, and it was throaty in the places it needed to be and melodious when that was called for. Bravo! Ed Sanders, who played Toby, was an extraordinary find! He steals your heart whenever he's on the screen...Even at the end...I'll get to that in a minute. As much as I hate seeing evil Alan Rickman, he was the right fit for the role, and Timothy Spall seems to serve as the quintessential bad-guy-sidekick (see Enchanted). :) I wish we could've seen more of Jayne Wisener and Jamie Campbell Bower, who played Johanna and Antony, respectively, but that was due to severe cutting in their characters and songs. they were, actually, younger than I expected, but now that I think about it, Johanna is supposed to be 16, and I guess it would've been gross to make Antony too much older, so there you go. I thought Sacha Baren Cohen was an odd choice for Signor Pirelli, but he was surprisingly entertaining.
If anything, see this film for the beautiful visuals! The Gothic color palette is completely apt for this story. True to Tim Burton fashion, certain parts are done artfully in eye-popping pastels (think Edward Scissorhands), while the serious parts seem perpetually veiled in black and blue moonlight, with red being allowed through at the appropriate moments. Oh, and don't feel bad about laughing when Sweeney Todd slits people's throats--Come on, it's FUNNY! The over-the-top spurting of blood everywhere is hysterical, and from what I understand, Tim Burton wanted it to be that way. I did notice, though, that I was usually the only one laughing, but keep in mind I did go on a Friday morning, so the theatre was only about half-full. Overall, though, the film was able to capture, both visually and acting-wise, the dark humor that even made this musical popular in the first place. You sit there thinking, I really shouldn't be laughing at this--They're baking people into PIES, for God's sake!--but you do anyway! The only serial killer on Broadway has now found a niche in film. :)
As professional reviews have reported, there is major cutting musically. Ordinarily, this bothers me in movie-musicals, but let me explain why I didn't mind it so much here. First of all, Tim Burton knew what had to be cut simply because the songs worked on-stage but wouldn't translate properly on-screen. Thus, the sung part of the theme "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" was cut from the show entirely (though the instrumental is heard throughout) because the lyrics and presentation of the song on-stage directly address the audience, and such a device just don't quite work in a film without being campy. Though, I admit, I was hoping to hear it because that's where the bad@$$ line "He never forgot, and he never forgave" even came from! Another reason for the cutting was probably in the interest of time. At just under 2 hours, if the film were it's full length, it would've been another Dreamgirls. (Note: I loved Dreamgirls, but I can see where people complain that it was too flipping long.) Also, Burton really wanted to make this Sweeney Todd's story--the focus was to be on him and what he was going through emotionally throughout. After all, he's well aware who the big draw is for this film! This is what, I'm guessing, led to the cutting of Judge Turpin's (Alan Rickman's) version of "Johanna," though I'm sure we all would've loved to see some S&M self-whipping involving Alan Rickman, and "Kiss Me" between Johanna and Antony. I didn't actually mind the second one, because that song kind of annoys me, but I did love Johanna's trope in it, which consequently had to be cut during the version of "Johanna" that they actually kept in the film. ("He said he'd marry me Sunday...")
This isn't to say, however, that I completely approved of every cut Burton made in the film. I'm somewhat ambivalent about the cuts in "No Place Like London." About half the song was cut, but granted a lot of it was the dialogue involving the Beggar Woman. I'm still not sure what I thought about Burton not having Todd meet the Beggar Woman/Lucy until the very end of the film. The ending is depressing no matter what, but it drives it even harder home when he's rejected her several times throughout the story rather than just at the end. Then again, perhaps he didn't want people suicidal when the film is done, lol. (Oh, and the shots of Mrs. Lovett burning in the oven at the end? Completely unnecessary, IMO.) He also changed the circumstances of how Toby killed Todd. In the musical, it's clear that Toby's gone a little loco, and he kills Todd after confronting him about Mrs. Lovett, then is found at the meet grinder singing "Patty Cake" in a deranged voice during "The Judge's Return." In the film, it's basically saying the cycle continues: Toby kills Todd in vengeance over Mrs. Lovett. There's no indication he's gone insane (except maybe insane with anger), and he does it all silently and stalks out. The final image is of Sweeney Todd bleeding over his dead wife. (Incidentally, I really hope that they used a molding or something for him to drip on, or that actress got a raw deal, lol.) But, given Burton's desire to keep the focus on Todd, the film's ending concentrated where it should have; plus, as the stage version led back into "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," which I already stated they had cut, it was perhaps for the best. "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" was pretty drastically changed as well, but I'm neutral about those changes. What I'm slightly peeved about was the decision not to have Johanna shoot the person at the asylum. In the musical, that's when she finally gets cahones (IMO), and taking it out just makes her seem so useless and insipid. That, on top of paring down her character to almost nothing and how squeaky her voice got sometimes, was a little annoying.
My verdict: Go see the movie! But not if you're looking for a heartwarming holiday movie. Oh God, if that's what you want, see another movie. But if you're a fan of any of the following, it's a must: Stephen Sondheim; Sweeney Todd the stage show; Johnny Depp; Tim Burton; really dark humor.
~The Original Fong~
**You wish you could pull off being me**
