Bloody

Rating: 5/10 (29 February 2008)

Let me begin with what I liked about the movie. I liked the actors, although I really wondered why Alan Rickman agreed to play in a movie like Sweeney Todd. Excpet the fact that especially the women sang in a cruel way, they did a good job and made me like the characters. With one exception: Sweeney Todd himself.
Although I'm not a big fan of musicals and I didn't like the music here as well, I have to appreciate the duets and the way, some musical structures were introduced to pop up again later. Nice trick to make you feel as though you liked the music, even if you didn't.
Some of the characters were quite enjoyable. The strange thing is, that I really liked Mrs Lovett and Judge Turpin, but absolutely hated Sweeney. I mean, Mrs Lovett and Sweeney are pretty similar to each other. They're both crazy and have, as far as I can see it, not even a hint of what it means to be human. In Mrs Lovett's case, this behavior is somehow understandable -- in Sweeney's it isn't.
Now, what was the problem about the movie? When I left the cinema, I thought, Oh my God, this is sick and not much more. This movie was contrary to all my opinions about life. Maybe this is conservative or naive or optimistic or a bit of everything, but I felt, that nobody should make a movie like that. "We all deserve to die". Well, maybe, I hear this pretty often, but I can't understand it. This is pathetic way to moan about how bad your life is, and mixed with sickness, it doesn't lead you anywhere. Lateron, I discussed the movie with one of my friends. She was delighted, I wasn't, she tried to explain, how Sweeney's mind worked and I actually understood it. And this is, what I really have to decry about the movie: Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd" does not work as a psyhogramm. It's protagonist is an insane murderer, it's topic should be the mind of this murderer and not his fabulous actions. But for this goal, Burton just doesn't get into it deep enough. A musical as the outer form of a story about a murderer? Sorry, but that doesn't fit and Burton definitely sets the wrong accents. Sometimes, mixing unconventional elements can be revolutionary. In Sweeney Todd's case, it isn't.
So, if you like music and have no problem with unexplained immorality, go watch this movie, it might entertain you. It didn't entertain me -- because I believe, this whole Sweeney Todd-topic is not a topic, that should entertain at all.