One of the film’s earliest lines should be tattooed on all of us at birth. ‘Life has been good to you. You’ll learn.’ Learn we do here, and laugh.
We’re talking about a bloodthirsty serial killer gore flick, but Sweeney Todd’s musical mayhem is deliriously fun. Choruses are gone and a couple of big numbers but they are hardly missed given the wealth of eye popping, soul chilling and hilarious bonuses.
The easy on the eyes considering it’s Johnny Depp in full Goth skunk drag and Helena Bonham Carter looking like an antique porcelain doll, albeit somewhat worse for wear. Both are pale in waxy white makeup that is sinister yet somehow beguiling.
Tim Burton has outdone himself and should easily be proud come award season, as should Depp and Bonham Carter. And Sondheim’s songs are infectious – bright, breezy and in exhilarating contrast to the action on the screen.
Sweeney Todd is a bloody luscious Christmas treat! It is seriously bloody, gag worthy for those inclined to gagging at the movies, so beware. There are genuinely frightening moments to be sure, but the comedy shines through knocking the stuffing out of darkness.
Todd screams at the sky in pain as he feels himself betrayed, cheated, close to arrest. He finishes and she punctures his operatic, self-absorbed pity party with ‘That’s all well, but …’
Sweeney Todd is based on a ‘penny dreadful’ novel issued around 1849, inspired by a ‘true’ case of razor serial killings in 1802 for which a blighter hung. It was likely an urban myth, as there is no evidence that that such a perp existed, but the Sweeney Todd idea has been entertaining those of us looking for cheap thrills for two hundred years.
Okay. Bill Barker returns to Fleet St after years running away from shadows – his wife was murdered and his child stolen by a judge who now wishes to marry her. He’s now Sweeney Todd, home to have his revenge. He’s a different, darker man from the sunny, optimistic fella he was before the judge spotted his wife many years ago.
Supporting characters are top notch including hot new talent Jamie Campbell Bower as a sailor experiencing his first love, which incidentally hits close to home for Todd. He looks up this ‘man of the world’ and begins his life’s education on his coattails.
Allan Rickman and Timothy Spall round out the cast, singing gamely and chilling us to the bone.
What a lark! People will leave the theatre with a song in their hearts and a skip in their steps, having watched dozens of gruesome deaths and enough spilled blood to paint the town red!
A bloody winner.
35mm musical horror
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