missing ingredients

Rating: 5/10 (29 January 2008)

Stephen Sondheim's stage work has not, with one significant exception, fared well when transfered to the cinema. The exception is, of course, West Side Story, for which he is credited solely as lyricist. Gypsy, his other significant lyrics-only credit, is a magnificent show which became a mystifyingly mediocre movie. Whatever cinematic virtues Richard Lester's version of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum may have, it wasn't well received. And the movie of A Little Night Music disappeared, almost without trace, in spite of the presence in the cast of Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Rigg. As a composer-lyricist, Sondheim's most successful Hollywood outing has not occurred in an adaptation of a stage work, but as the songwriter for Warren Beatty's movie Dick Tracy, his contributions to which won him an Oscar.
Given the above, Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd is probably going to be the movie-going public's abiding view of Sondheim's oeuvre. In this respect, even with substantial cuts to the stage show's score, it serves the songs well. The original orchestrator and musical director were on hand to provide their considerable combined expertise, and in a big cinema with a state-of-the-art sound system, it's a terrific aural experience. At least as far as the instruments are concerned...
Vocally, it's another matter. I've heard people sneer at Johnny Depp's sound, but personally I think it's pretty good. For what Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall have to do, they get away with it, whereas Sacha Baron Cohen is splendid, as are Jayne Wisener, Jamie Campbell Bower, wonderfully bouncy Ed Sanders, and, in a sadly reduced role, Laura Michelle Kelly. Helena Bonham Carter is, unfortunately, little short of a disaster on this front: although she sings in time and mostly in tune, the sound is dreary and lacking energy.
In fact, the main weakness in the movie for me is that Mrs Lovett is played so listlessly. I can kind of see where this might have come from: the woman is worn out keeping her business going etc etc. But her songs are full of life. Tim Burton can evidently feel the exuberance in the greatest of them, The Worst Pies In London. The camera-work and the film editing are very sprightly during it. But Bonham Carter's wispy tone undermines the comedy.
Bonham Carter is not by any means a bad actress: her scenes with Ed Sanders are grounded and real, and she successfully conveys, in the midst of all the gore, Mrs Lovett's adoration of Sweeney Todd. But she is, essentially, and unfortunately, miscast.
On the other hand, the romantic couple, on stage generally too old (and mostly deadly dull), benefit here from appropriate casting, generous close-ups, and the tightening up of their story (at one point inexplicably: when Anthony Hope comes bounding in to tell Mr Todd of his discovery of Joanna, we have no sense of how Anthony knows where to find Todd, since we haven't seen them re-bond since they went their ways at the start of the movie, Todd giving Anthony only the vaguest idea of his future whereabouts).
Todd himself is the real centre of the movie that bears his name, which is also a welcome shift from what happens in the theatre. On stage, the sheer energy of Mrs Lovett's material works to favour her. It is no accident that while she has been successfully portrayed by a number of first-rate actresses, only journeyman George Hearn came near to making Todd his own. Johnny Depp has now stamped his indelible mark on the role. He is, as we all know, a fine actor. Although here he doesn't actually appear to have to stretch his acting muscles unduly, he is such a star presence that any film he's in will revolve effortlessly around him. The Burton/Depp partnership has given us at least two dazzlers - Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood. Sweeney Todd is not in that category, but an interesting lesser work.
In my view, the stage show is simply a piece of fun with Grand Guignol conventions. Its apparent dourness may stem from the political gloss on the Todd story in the play version by Chris Bond, which Sondheim took as his source material. Although Bond's play is anything but solemn, the sombreness of Sondheim's music undoubtedly darkened its tone, which has made mining the rich humour in it rather more difficult. The fact is that Sweeney Todd is not a work that requires much dwelling upon. Attempts to burden it with significance merely serve to show up its simple basis as an entertainment. It has been taken up by opera houses, where the fun has been duly taken out of it, and its musical limitations mercilessly exposed.
Tim Burton goes some way to reinstating the dark humour of the piece with his nimble camera. I can certainly see why the material would appeal to him. It's the Burtonland of Nightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride, and even Mars Attacks. Whether Sondheim aficionados will be delighted, I somehow doubt. Never mind: they can always go back to the video of the stage show, which features the great Angela Lansbury in one of her showpiece roles, giving some insight into what is missing here.