Sweeney Razorhands!

Rating: 9/10 (20 February 2008)

Ladies and gentlemen, clap your handsTim Burton has accomplished his darkest, sickest, sadistic, most twisted and perverse piece yet; and he's done it with a musical. Don't expect a lot of talking in "Sweeney Todd", because the actors sing most of the film. It opens with a ship arriving to London, and a sailor singing about how nothing compares to the city. But a man next to him, Sweeney Todd, thinks the opposite. Already on the city streets, he sings to the sailor: "There was a barber and his wife", as he tells a story.
It's a beautifully sad song; part of Stephen Sondheim's musical, expertly conducted in Burton's version by Paul Gemignani, with an orchestra that includes nothing more than strings: peaceful but scary strings. For a short time, 'peaceful and scary' appears to be an accurate description for what's going on, from the perfect opening sequence until the moment Sweeney meets Mrs. Lovett.
Helena Bonham Carter plays her in a stupendous performance. A human interpretation of a character that accepts her reality before Sweeney comes into her life (she sings the funniest song of the film, telling him hers are the ugliest pies in town) and deals with the changes the barber brings to her routine, making sacrifices for a man she secretly loves. Still, Bonham Carter leaves room for some surprises.
Because when characters don't sing, John Logan's screenplay brings a subtle amount of black humor to the table and the necessary amount of character development. Of course "Sweeney Todd" is a classic revenge tale, but if it weren't for some scenes we wouldn't empathize so much with the main character. Besides his idiosyncrasy, we immediately recognize in Sweeney the scars of a truly wounded man.
Johnny Depp embodies the character from this contradiction; so he has moments of pure rage that the viewer may be shocked with or not, but there are times where we sense sadness in his face or a need for silence, loneliness and meditation. This is the key to his performance's success (not even his impressive singing talent), which works the most when he combines both sides. Like in a scene (a song) where Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett find a solution to their miseries (or something like that, you'll choose) and dance together; he with his razor she with her pie stick. The way Bonham Carter looks through the window during that song is pure marvel.
Sweeney is not the typical Burton outcast; it's more like a normal human being who died and is trying to see how it feels to be alive again.
To be honest, everyone works at a great level in "Sweeney Todd". For example, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall are wickedly cruel, and (do believe it) they sing; a little kid called Ed Sanders is the best singer of the ensemble and a very convincing performer; the production design and the cinematography make London a place you want to hate as Sweeney does: an obscure, unpredictable colder than nowadays.
While Tim Burton is the craziest of them allA master of fantasies and of tone changing in the middle of them, the director this time sticks to the style and world he's chosen: he puts his own touches to Sweeney (the gray part of the hair); makes him see the light only once while making sure the makeup and costume generate a contrast that makes him look like a dead corpse on the beach or a prisoner, if you may; and ultimately leads him to his dark, sick, twisted, perverse and tragic end. Brilliant.