To think I was worried

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2007)

As a fan of the musical, I was both excited and worried to hear that it was finally being filmed. I was excited because a one of the greatest and daring musicals ever would finally be given the put on the silver screen for all the world to see and worried because there were a lot of things that could go wrong.
When I heard Tim Burton would be directing, I felt it was in good hands because if anyone could get the dark look and tone of the musical, it would be him. Escpecially since he is a life long fan of the show who's seen every performance he could since it premiered on Broadway in 1979.
However, when I heard that Johnny Deep would be playing the title character, I thought "uh-oh". Having a man who's never sung in his life play the lead character in a musical doesn't necessarily mean it will be bad to begin with (look at how things worked out for Rex Harrison in MY FAIR LADY or Marlon Brando in GUYS AND DOLLS), but I couldn't help but worry. And I became concerned as I heard about the rest of the casting, including Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett. So in the months of production, I listened for any news I could about the film and its star's singing abilities, which were kept under wraps. The fact that the trailers focused more on the horror aspects of the show didn't help.
But now that I've finally seen the film for myself, I can breathe a huge sigh of relief in knowing one of my favorite musicals was done justice on the screen.
The story: a London barber is unjustly imprisoned by a corrupt judge and is sent to an Austrailian prison for 15 years. He escapes and returns to London to reunite with his family, only to find out it was the destroyed by the judge. He vows revenge, but soon targets all of society and his partner in crime uses the bodies of his victims to help her poor meat pie business.
It looks great. The film's production team painstakingly recreate Dickens-era London in all its squalid glory, mostly using actual buildings and cobble stone streets in favor of the overused CGI Hollywood is addicted to these days. And the costumes and rooms look so authentic I wondered if they didn't actually buy and repair centuries old clothes.
And how did Johnny do? For starters, he looks the part. With his pale complexion, the dark circles around his eyes, and his wily black hair with white streak, he looks like a Victorian mad man. But how's his singing? Well, he doesn't have the big, boisterous, Broadway-style singing voice of the major actors who've played Sweeney in the past, but he makes it work. Instead he has a usually quiet, somewhat punk rock style voice that he makes very good use of. When he sung to his razors in the song "My Friends" I got chills. And he did just great on "Epithany", where Todd loses what sanity he has and vows to kill everyone he can.
Helena, however, left somethings to be desired. She looked the part with her frizzled hair and long, ruffled dresses. She's not nearly as good a singer but she has her moments.
As for the rest of the cast, they're all very good. Alan Rickman makes the corrupt Judge Turpin loathsome and despicable, Timothy Spall is a mean ass Beadle Bamford, and Sacha Baron Cohen makes wonderful use of his short role as the flamboyant, conceited, greedy Pirelli.
Then there's the newcomers. I have to give Burton a lot of credit for having the show's young characters played by actors that are more or less the right age. Jayne Wisener is a pretty Johanna and she sings a good rendition of "Green Finch, Linnet Bird" (no small feat considering this is one of the show's least popular songs), but her character does less here than on stage, so it was hard for me to really judge her. Jamie Campbell Bower struck me as a strangely pretty take of Anthony, but then again he did look "fresh faced" and he can really sing. But the best one is Ed Sanders. When I heard that Toby was being played by a kid, I was a little uncertain of how to take it, as the character has always been played by young men who simply looked youthful. But young Mr. Sanders does a wonderful job, bringing humor and pathos to every scene he's in, whether it be hawking fake hair tonic in "Perilli's Miracle Elixer" or singing a moving song of devotion with "Not While I'm around" or just swilling gin with the best of 'em. With a good agent, this kid could have a future in the movies.
Fans of the musical will lament the many, many cuts of material lost in the transition from stage to screen, but I was okay with most of them. Many made sense and there were some I even saw coming. The only ones I really miss are the chorus in "God That's Good!" and the Judge's version "Johanna", which both disturbing and fascinating at the same time.
All in all, a great adaptation of a great musical. Well done, Mr. Burton, very well done.