Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Christopher Bond (play), John Logan (script)
Producer: Richard D. Zanuck
Music: Stephen Sondheim
Starring: Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd
Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett
Sacha Baron Cohen as Signor Adolfo Pirelli
Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin
Laura Michelle Kelly as Beggar Woman
Timothy Spall as The Beadle
Anthony Stewart Head
Studio: DreamWorks Pictures
Sweeney Todd: a psycho barber and famous purveyor of dodgy pies. Chaps, what took you so long? It was screamingly obvious what a gorgeous couple you would make when the curtain lifted on Stephen Sondheim’s penny dreadful in 1979. You have so much in common: a love of London’s dark and menacing streets; a penchant for jokes that only Edgar Allan Poe could possibly find funny; and an unquenchable thirst for fresh blood.
I’ve rarely seen a film director so perfectly matched to a musical. The black magic begins when Johnny Depp’s white-faced Sweeney steals up the Thames at the dead of night. As the boat slips under a spooky London Bridge it becomes quite clear that Burton was put on earth to shoot this glorious melodrama. The wonder is that it’s taken him nearly 30 years. True, most of the cast had to grow up, and a lot of clever special effects needed to be invented. I suspect the real brakes, however, were applied by studios horrified by the idea of an ‘art house musical’.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The film unfolds like the Grimmest of tales. Depp’s bitter Sweeney returns to London after 15 years of hurt. His painful story emerges in hollow songs with haunting off-key melodies. He wears his grievances like armour. His plan to murder the men who condemned him to a penal colony in order to rape his wife hinges around the dismal attic above Mrs Lovett’s ailing pie shop. The atmosphere is vintage Hammer House. The gleaming monochrome shots of cobbled streets are drained of colour.
The musical chemistry between Depp and Helena Bonham Carter’s genial cockney pie shop mistress is terrific. Casting Depp as the stony avenger was hardly a novel stretch for Burton (who has frequently collaborated with the actor) and the director didn’t have to get out of bed to find Mrs Lovett. Bonham Carter (Burton's real-life partner) hasn’t sunk her teeth into such a rich part for years. Lovett’s unreciprocated passion for Sweeney is the heart of the film and she is far more interesting than Depp. Her lightbulb idea of stuffing Sweeney’s clients into pies seems wonderfully sensible.
The film's pace is a surprise. Burton has pruned Sondheim’s arias to fit the tempo of a thriller -- brilliant editing – and the villains are far less stocky. Sacha Baron Cohen delivers a priceless cameo as a jealous unisex rival with plans to blackmail Sweeney. Alan Rickman is a sinister pleasure as Judge Turpin. And Timothy Spall is equally effective as his ultra-violent enforcer, Beadle Bamford. Several patches of fantasy don’t work, but these are few and far between.
Burton has never been one to spare the gore. The sound of skulls cracking open when Sweeney tosses his victims head first into the basement is not for the faint-hearted. The director’s knack of finding comedy in these ghastly scenes is tested to the limit. So something for everyone then.