Sweeny Todd

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Guild 45^th Theater, Seattle, WA

December 31, 2007

*** 1/2 / ****

by Scott Muoio

Forget for one moment that he of the dark and strange cinematic touch, Tim Burton, is in the director’s chair and still, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is all kinds of bizarre, surreal, and ghastly. That fact is loud and clear from the chilling opening credit animation to the boisterously macabre singing, the ghoulish costumes and sets to the hauntingly creepy performances, the horrifying character connections to the film’s blood-bath second half. Channeling the eeriest of mood movies and cinematic thrillers with the most outlandish Japanese splatter fests, and seasoned with a generous helping of Broadway brou-ha-ha, Sweeney Todd is neither your typical Tim Burton affair or a standard movie musical. Likewise it is neither a run-of-the-mill horror film nor one of those over-done musical biopics. Instead, Todd is something altogether twisted and different incorporating a bit of everything into a mesmerizing soufflé that will have you gasping, chuckling, and perhaps even squeezing the hand of the theatergoer next to you, even if you don’t know him or her.

The basic story in Todd is rather typical, that is, until the really crazy stuff starts happening. Returning to London after fifteen years in exile, Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp), a barber by trade, is bent on avenging a judge (Alan Rickman) who literally stole away his wife and young daughter while banishing him to kingdom come. Finding residence for his barbershop upstairs of a meat pie vendor, Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), the duo form a very peculiar though economically sound partnership as successfully sadistic small business entrepreneurs. That Todd slices throats and Mrs. Lovett grinds the bodies down for her tarts is but a formality; these are truly pies to die for! And when the dying starts happening, as it eventually does, like nails scraped on a blackboard, all bets are off whether you find yourself laughing, shrieking, covering your eyes, or some combination. Any movie that can make a viewer do all three, and sometimes at the same time, is surely an excellent film, and Todd unquestionably falls into that category.

Todd is excellent viewing because it transports us into its own outlandishly gruesome world while warping the rules of living we’ve come to know and obey. Everything that occurs in the film could happen, from the neck slicing barber with the reclining chair that literally dumps its victims into the cellar to the oh-so-tasty ground chuck pastry maven who dreams of moving with her partner to the seaside, but in this world it is better to make everything that should occur actually happen. Forget happy endings, Todd is like Shakespearean tragedy with gallons rather than thimble fulls of stage blood and more slice for the price than anything the bard could ever dream. And with a cast led by the perfectly lonesome yet forthright Helena Bonham Carter (one of the few times a director’s girlfriend is actually by far the best choice for her role), who is even better than the always reliable Johnny Depp, you know you’ve got movie gold. In Todd, Bonham can act and sing, and the movie is a wonderful vessel for her talents. Throw in Sacha Boren Cohen (yes, Borat!) as a rival egomaniacal barber and the movie finds the perfect balance between drama, comedy, horror, and showbiz gymnastics. The ending, too, is exactly as it need be, a trait sorely lacking with many of today’s motion pictures. Sure, the movie could have done with less subtlety and more over-the-top mayhem, but I think that is merely a personal preference. As is, Sweeney Todd is a fantastic movie and top-notch entertainment of the perverse and twisted kind.