'Ow 'Bout A Shave?

Rating: 7/10 (23 December 2007)

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd His skin was pale and his eye was odd He shaved the faces of gentlemen Who never thereafter were heard of again
The long-awaited adaptation of "Sweeney Todd" from stage to screen has finally arrived and Tim Burton is reaping rave reviews, Christmas cheer and the joy of the birth of his first child with longtime girlfriend Helena Bonham Carter. With an already extensive body of work, Burton has most certainly completed his largest project to date and not only is it his magnum opus, it is Oscar bait as well.
Returning for his and Burton's sixth collaboration, Johnny Depp shoulders the role of the title character, a barber of good repute whose beautiful wife Lucy is stolen away by the conniving Judge Turpin (Rickman). Returning to London from a 15-year exile, the woeful and bitter Benjamin Barker (Depp) assumes the moniker of Sweeney Todd and in cahoots with the wily Mrs. Lovett (Bonham Carter) begins slicing men's throats en masse with his prized razors. He soon discovers that his daughter Johanna (Wisener) is a virtual prisoner in Turpin's home and is determined to exact his revenge, all the while providing the main ingredient for Mrs. Lovett's re-popularized meat pies.
Depp looks like Beethoven on crank (or Edward Scissorhands if he'd gotten a perm) and Bonham Carter is a Raggedy Ann doll from hell. Both give admirable performances but singing-wise, they're sub-par. Yes, yes, I know that Depp never got a single singing lesson and coached himself and he's to be commended. Bonham Carter did get singing lessons and even studied baking to prepare for her performance as Mrs. Lovett but she still manages to do nothing more than carry a tune, and that's my assessment of most of the other castmates as well. I found myself more than once thinking, "No, no, noSING, DAMMIT!" To hear these songs sung by the 1979 original Broadway cast has Depp and Bonham Carter PALING in comparison to the likes of Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou. The only voices that rise slightly above mediocre are Jamie Campbell Bower as Anthony ("Johanna") and Ed Sanders as Toby ("Not While I'm Around"). Broadway material most of these people are NOT, especially when trying to bring to life the music of Stephen Sondheim but their acting makes up for it, thank goodness.
Of course, most of the youth who will flock to the cineplex are fans of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films and they won't be disappointed. Depp faithfully emotes with utmost excellence and gives Sweeney a snarling intensity worthy of another Oscar nod. Bonham Carter brings a certain sweet psychosis to our dearest Mrs. Lovett and Alan Rickman makes us smile as well as squirm with his portrayal of the perverted Judge Turpin. My personal favorite is Sacha Baron Cohen as the flamboyant Signor Pirelli  he'll get many chuckles as well as ovations with his overwrought Italian accent and surprising operatics.
For those who are fans of Tim Burton's dark and Gothic vision, you will salivate over his version of 19th-century London. He paints a fantastically dank and dirty metropolis awash in smoke, fog and pestilence. Renowned costume designer Colleen Atwood (Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands) joins Burton's crew once again, draping Depp in frills, thrills and leather and appareling Bonham Carter in playfully daring couture. Hair and makeup are superb and the violent nature of the story has not been sugarcoated in the least  "Sweeney" is fully saturated in gore, blood literally spraying from people's throats and corpses plunging into the dungeon-like basement of the pie shop with a sickening thud.
On a scale of one to ten, "Sweeney Todd" rates an 8. Had it not been for the notably average vocals, it'd be a real scream in my book.