Even more than one could expect

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2008)

Tim Burton has always been known for his combining the brutal with the beautiful and the melancholy with the funny. He is one of the very few directors who can make the longing for death a humorous matter, and Burton has been perfecting this ability throughout most of his career. A chief contribution to the particular Burtonesque style was his teaming-up with Johnny Depp for "Edward Scissorhands". Ever since, this dream team of the "rather extraordinary movie" has produced masterpieces like "Sleepy Hollow", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", and "Corpse Bride". And now: "Sweeney Todd". I have read much about the danger of producing a musical, using an adapted play, and making actors sing. However, I always knew that Burton would not try to make this film perfect but to deliver a certain mood which can only be described as "Burtonesque", or maybe "DeppandBurtonesque". Surprisingly perfect is the result, though. Although we are talking about an old play which was hardly modified in the process of making the film, it seems like the story, the characters, and the setting were put together in anticipation of someone like Burton to make them the core of an blockbuster (if Burton films can be called this). It's hard to judge whether the "sub-perfect" singing voices of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman are part of the film design or whether they do originate from lack of vocal abilities. Why should a broken character sing with the voice of a nightingale? By the way: Especially during the songs, but even in general, the appreciation for the best performance is owed to Helena Bonham Carter. What surprised me, though, was the amount of blood and the degree of brutality which is untypical - even for Tim Burton. At some points, it feels like you are sitting in a Tarantino movie or like you are watching a new "SAW" trailer. But considering the completely stylized mood of the movie, a certain equilibrium is created again, so that you are not left with the image of a horror slasher film but with that of a true Tim Burton creation.