Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007)
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET is the tour-de-force musical story of a wronged innocent who returns from forced exile in the prison colony of Australia to seek revenge on those who robbed him of his former life.
A story told in song and wrapped in dark shadows and spurting blood Tim Burton and Johnny Depp re-team once more but this time the candy floss candy factory is gone and the dirty streets of 19th century London beckon. Depp plays the darkest character he has ever played though his English accent does conjure up memories of that irksome pirate role. And as this is musical theatre the actors sing which makes for passable performances but the structure of the songs, and musical theatre by it's very nature, rags on me after a while and the lighter moments become irritating. I am not one for watching musicals. They just do not fall within the sphere of films I like mainly horror science fiction and fantasy. Strange then that two movies should come along this year that do interest me, this one and Darren Lynn Bousman's REPO! A GENETIC OPERA. TODD has a Broadway history where as REPO! is a wild science fiction heavy metal rock-a-thon, much more my bag.
Not to dismiss SWEENEY TODD which I have given a chance and found to be quite enjoyable. The sweeter lighter songs toward the beginning are not to my taste but the dark sardicious humour that leaks into Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carters numbers certainly provide amble entertainment value as does the bloody spurting special effects and Tim Burtons dark, gothic London, does any director do this better? Though definitely not my cup of tea i cannot bring myself to rule TODD out and so give it the fairest score I can.
