Inevitably when someone writes reviews for a specific medium - be it film, music, books, art, or whatever - biases come into play. Even the most seasoned critic can't help but gravitate towards certain genres or themes while consistently holding others at arm's length. Take, for example, Roger Ebert's strong predilection towards films dealing with race issues and his inability to enjoy the vast majority of film's made by David Lynch or Tim Burton. Everyone has different biases, and as such certain critics need to be taken with a grain of salt in specific instances. I say all this because this review is heavily influenced by my own biases, more so than most reviews. Sometimes I'll watch a film I don't especially love, but I can see why it deserves recognition and recommend it in spite of my own tastes (No Country for Old Men jumps to mind). But sometimes my own biases prove too strong to overcome. If I were to name my two biggest biases, they would certainly be that Tim Burton is my favorite filmmaker and that musicals are the most tedious of film genres to sit through. So imagine how hard it is for me to try and explain my thoughts on Sweeney Todd, a Tim Burton musical.I had little notion of just what the story of Sweeney Todd entailed before I learned of Burton's decision to make a film version. It turned out that Todd follows a barber (Johnny Depp) who was living the perfect life in 19th century London with his wife and baby daughter, until one day a jealous Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) had the barber falsely accused of a crime and sent away to prison for the rest of his life. The barber breaks out and returns to London, now calling himself Sweeney Todd and hellbent on revenge. He learns that his wife is gone and that his daughter is under the ward of the evil judge. With the help of local pie maker Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) he sets about murdering the citizens of London with his shaving razors while Lovett bakes the victims into meat pies. Singin' in the Rain this certainly is not.
I've had some time to think about Sweeney Todd, and I think there are a few reasons why it proved to be one of the most enjoyable films I've seen all year. Chief among them, of course, is the usual Tim Burton flairs. From the atmospheric world he has crafted to the dark humor and the themes of an outcast fighting against a society that doesn't understand him, it all feels like something straight out of Burton's mind. If you are in tune with Burton's visual style, you will certainly be sucked in within minutes. But I suspect that even if Burton was doing everything I usually expect of him, he still wouldn't have been able to make me fully appreciate the fact that it is a musical. And not just an occasional break-out-into-song musical, but a near opera of wall to wall music. No, I have to give credit to Stephen Sondheim for crafting a truly aurally striking masterpiece that rises above the typical musical to be something unique.
Whether it is Mrs. Lovett singing about how she has the worst meat pies in all of London, or Todd serenading his razor blades, the songs here are anything but typical. And they really convey just what the characters are thinking, what makes them tick. Perhaps one of the best moments in the film is when Todd has the judge within his grasp, only to lose him at the last second. The song Todd sings truly shows that any last thread of sanity he may have had is now gone forever. As he roams the streets singing about how he will have vengeance not just on the judge, but one everybody, we see that he is not the hero we once might have hoped him to be, but instead a monster, no better than the man who made him what he is.
I'm no expert on these things, but from what I can tell, Johnny Depp is not the greatest of singers. He never does a bad job, but he doesn't hit some notes in the way that is probably expected of him. Helena Bonham Carter isn't much better. But their acting is very good. We've come to expect Depp to be amazing in everything, so the fact that he can convey the emotional distress and conflicted nature of the demon barber comes as no shock. Carter actually outshines him at times, however, and she might have actually been my favorite characters. We understand why Todd has lost his mind, but the fact that Mrs. Lovett so willingly goes along with him makes much less sense at first. Yet Carter makes you believe that this woman would bake human victims into pies simply for the affection of Todd. Alan Rickman as the judge is a wonderful, if too brief, performance. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of him is how his pessimistic world view so closely mirrors that of Todd. Todd says we all deserve to die, while Judge Turpin says we are all guilty of something. I would have loved to get some more insight into what made Turpin into the man he had become. And a special note must be made of Timothy Spall, who plays Beadle, Turpin's right hand man. He is so effectively slimy and unlikable that he steals every scene he is in. Spall is a character actor that deserves more recognition than he gets, consistently outshining his costars in a number of big films.
All the things I hate about musicals were either not included here, or were tweaked in such a way that they became fun and exciting. This isn't a feel good musical made to get you to sing along. These aren't characters you are meant to route for. These are monsters singing about monstrous things, and it becomes much more complex for that fact. I'm not sure what you are to make of my review, however. If you love Burton films but hate musicals, then this movie was made for you. For me, this film is truly exciting in that it gave me a bit more appreciation for a genre I heretofore had no love for at all. Maybe I'm just getting more open minded in my old age. Or maybe Burton really has made a masterpiece in Sweeney Todd.
