bastardguys: Film: Tim Burton: "Sweeney Todd" (2007)

I was excited to watch and then review “Sweeney Todd” because there was a period during my teenage years during which I was completely obsessed with the original cast recording of the Broadway show. At the time I was struck by both the music and the unusual setting and plot for a Broadway musical. The genre isn't entirely without darkness, but “Sweeney Todd” was revolting, gory and frightening, with no real catharsis, a long night's journey into night (Editor's Note: LOL)*. It debuted in 1979 but still has some fairly shocking material (some which the film doesn't include). The new film loses a lot of the sheer force of darkly comic terror that the original cast recording has, but is still a fairly flick, if largely as a result of the moments from the original that it gets right (and a few functional diversions).

I must start with the performances. Johnny Depp was adequate, if un-amazing. The comic menace he displays towards Beedle Bradford as he promises him “the closest shave of your life” was an excellent moment. His tiresome lack of anything like depth is not. I used to have great respect for Johnny Depp as an actor but I'm beginning to think he should stick to character roles and any leads like Captain Jack Sparrow, which require no real depth but plenty of transient inspiration – something Depp excels at. Bonham-Carter was slightly less adequate. I thought her lazy delivery didn't particularly fit the role. Admittedly, I may be partial to Angela Lansbury's original performance, which couldn't be more different. She was all desperate energy and hyper-rational ambition, so much so that she seems more psychopathic than Sweeney Todd. Bonham-Carter plays the role as a weak-willed romantic (with some morbid tendencies, granted). Blah. Alan Rickman plays Judge Turpin very well as Alan Rickman. Fucking Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer shows up and gets his throat slit. I think he had like two lines but I get all pumped when I see random Buffy cast-members everywhere because I am a nerd that way.

Tim Burton's typical stylistic over-eagerness was on display everywhere. Sometimes it works very well, more often not so much. I've seen it much better applied in previous efforts (“Ed Wood,” “Edward Scissorhands,” the underrated “Sleepy Hollow”). The final image of Todd's death felt like the most quintessentially Burton moment but it also completely misses the real tragedy of the moment. It's a beautiful shot, but it's the exact kind of moment where you wish Burton would stop being so goddamn Burton-y for a moment and just show something like the reality of the scene. The drama of the moment is so powerful on its own – why comment on it so loudly?

I have to address the music, too. I prefer writing about music, anyway, and the original score is such a quirky, brilliant piece of music. The film makes a few mistakes here. First, they decided to cut the Chorus which occasionally shows up in the original to comment on the proceedings. The music written for the choruses is among the most impressive of the score. Sondheim employs baroque counterpoint, leitmotif and all sorts of other surprising things that you don't normally expect to hear in a fucking Broadway musical. Second, the orchestration employed is much lighter, softer and watered-down. Which is a real shame. It loses a lot of its angular menace. Indeed, the entire score is almost entirely built around leitmotif, being more or less comprised of maybe 20 different threads of music. It's a marvelous effect when used so liberally, as previously sublime melodies show up in the darkest places and are smashed together in surprising ways. The new recording keeps a lot of this but the cuts, in places, hurt. Also, Johnny Depp does an admirable job of trying, but Len Cariou's original is incomparably superior. It's like comparing Mozart's 40^th Symphony with the Verve's “Bittersweet Symphony” (zing!).

Anyway, right. Uhm. So the new movie's worth seeing, but I wouldn't make it a top priority. It's a bit of a disappointment in how it mishandles such excellent original material – this really should have been a better film – but perhaps those with little or no familiarity with the original may enjoy it a bit more. So...three stars.

Also, for comparison's sake, here's a bootleg video from the original theatrical production and the new soundtrack version of the same song, “Epiphany.”: