SWEENY TODD
SWEENY TODD |
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Tim Burton adapts Stephen Sondheim's celebrated musical about the demon barber of Fleet Street: Sweeney Todd's lust for revenge sends over the brink of madness. | score 4 |
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| Cast Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen Director Tim Burton Screenwriter John Logan Country USA Rating / Running Time MA / 116 minutes Australian Release January 2008 Official Site (c) moviereview
2006-2008
ABN 72 775 390 361 |
Life’s
not been kind to Benjamin Barker (Depp). Having escaped colonial
servitude following trumped up charges, Barker, now Sweeney Todd, is a
broken man who returns to the ‘shit-hole’ of London. He
sings as much in a gloriously gothic opener that is dripping in
torment. Sweeney Todd is awash
with blood from start to end as Sondheim’s celebrated musical
surrenders to Tim Burton’s creative extravagance. A vengeful Todd and his former landlady Mrs Lovett (Bonham Carter) seek the head of heartless Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), the man who ruined Barker’s life, stole his wife and holds his young daughter as a ward. It’s a deadly plan involving meat pies and more than one close shave from the demon barber of Fleet Street. Problem is, the loving landlady hasn’t told Todd the whole story. Sweeny Todd is everything you hope for from a Tim Burton production: the humour, the horror, the music and the menace. Dante Ferretti’s sumptuous design is flawless, murky and ominous. Depp and Carter are a mesmerising couple who recreate their characters from deep wells of pity and pathos. Comic support from Sacha Baron Cohen as the conniving shuckster Pirelli, and Timothy Spall’s sinister Beadle Bamford, are bright points in the cloying darkness. Yet there remains a sense that Burton is pushing, rather than guiding, the material and Sondheim’s evocative, forgettable songs aid him in his quest. Fans won’t complain, this is a thrilling journey into madness though newcomers might be less enthralled. But those who look for lyricism in places other than music will find Sweeney Todd a work of bloody brilliance.
// COLIN FRASER |