A 120 minutes of Sondheim & Gomorrah
Dec. 24th, 2007 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jack_babalonMy dad used to tell me that it was traditional to tell ghost stories on Christmas Eve, and in that spirit (ow!) we settled for a Grand Guignol London Style - Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - and make no mistake, London is as much a star as Depp or Carter, at least as translated through Burton's magnificently executed vision, which for me at least, invokes wonderfully the London of Hogarth, Dickens and Blake ("I wander through each chartered street, Near where the chartered Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet, Marks of weakness, marks of woe.").
Johnny Depp plays Sweeney Todd aka Benjamin Barker, a straight razor weilding Victorian Anti-Hero (actually more of an anti-villain)who has returned to London seeking vengence against Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) who had him sentenced to 15 years hard labor just to make a play on the titular barbers wife. Todd is aided by Mrs. Nellie Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) who's humble fleet street shop boasts the worst meat pies in all of England (and if you've ever eaten British cuisine you'll have to agree that's saying a lot). The two scheme and sing away, leaving a body count that would leave the most ambitious 21st century serial killer envious and turning a good portion of Fleet Street denizens into unintentional cannibals.
The big question I think going in is "How's Depp do with the whole singing-thing?". To be honest... meh. While his look may be pure David Vanian during the Damned's Phantasmagoria years his singing channels a Diamond Dogs era Bowie at times and hits a little flat at others. However he seems to really nail the performance down - especially in the body language, often slashing throats as an after thought and conveying towards Mrs. Lovett a sort of distracted diplomacy that intimates the brooding obsession that drives the character. Some of the others, such as the kid who plays Sailor Hope and surprisingly (for me at least) Alan Rickman really hit the notes well.
The story itself seemed rushed at times ( they dropped the title song from the original musical for some reason, a shame because that was the one I enjoyed most) and they have changed the ending a bit from that version, one imagines it having been done so for the sheer purpose of molly-cuddling the marketing departments notions of the audiences moral sensibilities.
At times I felt that this was almost an inverted mirror reflection of an earlier Burton-Depp collaboration, Edward Scissorhands where we see a full 180 transistion from one razor weilding misunderstood protagonist to another. A sort of Anti-Scissorhands if you will. A meditation from innocence misunderstood to innocence lost. Our Hollywood storybook Goth Idol ending has changed some 15 years later into a Victorian sitcom mockery of itself - Manson family values and all that.
I guess i'm pretty biased here, I am a big fan of the Angela Landsbury version I saw as a kid on PBS. If you're looking for a big budget version of that you'll be plenty disappointed. If you're looking for a fun, murderous romp through the gas lit cobbled streets of a mythical London, replete with gore, laughs, songs and romance - stop on by for "a shave and a haircut"... you'll defintely get your "two bits" worth!
Johnny Depp plays Sweeney Todd aka Benjamin Barker, a straight razor weilding Victorian Anti-Hero (actually more of an anti-villain)who has returned to London seeking vengence against Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) who had him sentenced to 15 years hard labor just to make a play on the titular barbers wife. Todd is aided by Mrs. Nellie Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) who's humble fleet street shop boasts the worst meat pies in all of England (and if you've ever eaten British cuisine you'll have to agree that's saying a lot). The two scheme and sing away, leaving a body count that would leave the most ambitious 21st century serial killer envious and turning a good portion of Fleet Street denizens into unintentional cannibals.
The big question I think going in is "How's Depp do with the whole singing-thing?". To be honest... meh. While his look may be pure David Vanian during the Damned's Phantasmagoria years his singing channels a Diamond Dogs era Bowie at times and hits a little flat at others. However he seems to really nail the performance down - especially in the body language, often slashing throats as an after thought and conveying towards Mrs. Lovett a sort of distracted diplomacy that intimates the brooding obsession that drives the character. Some of the others, such as the kid who plays Sailor Hope and surprisingly (for me at least) Alan Rickman really hit the notes well.
The story itself seemed rushed at times ( they dropped the title song from the original musical for some reason, a shame because that was the one I enjoyed most) and they have changed the ending a bit from that version, one imagines it having been done so for the sheer purpose of molly-cuddling the marketing departments notions of the audiences moral sensibilities.
At times I felt that this was almost an inverted mirror reflection of an earlier Burton-Depp collaboration, Edward Scissorhands where we see a full 180 transistion from one razor weilding misunderstood protagonist to another. A sort of Anti-Scissorhands if you will. A meditation from innocence misunderstood to innocence lost. Our Hollywood storybook Goth Idol ending has changed some 15 years later into a Victorian sitcom mockery of itself - Manson family values and all that.
I guess i'm pretty biased here, I am a big fan of the Angela Landsbury version I saw as a kid on PBS. If you're looking for a big budget version of that you'll be plenty disappointed. If you're looking for a fun, murderous romp through the gas lit cobbled streets of a mythical London, replete with gore, laughs, songs and romance - stop on by for "a shave and a haircut"... you'll defintely get your "two bits" worth!
