Good work,Mr Todd!

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2008)

Musicals are stupid. Or at least I think they are, they're terribly popular so they must be doing something right. It's just that there's nothing more jarring than when you're starting to get absorbed in a story and suddenly the leads burst into a cringe-inducing song and dance routine. Turns out I might just be watching the wrong musicals though, because "Sweeney Todd" is brilliant. Everything's shot through with Burton's flair for the Gothic, with London looking like a charcoal pop-up book full of jagged buildings and sneering bitter characters, the perfect setting for Depp's twisted barber to exact his revenge.
It looks stunning, and rather than pulling you out of the story the songs actually service it brilliantly, adding a real emotional immediacy to proceedings. Depp throws himself into these numbers with gusto, while Helena Bonham Carter manages herself pretty well too and looks gorgeous to boot. There are a couple of less effective songs that could have been trimmed, but there's not much to gripe about here really. I'm not a full convert to the musical cause(I shan't be roaring along to Hairspray anytime soon) but this has shown not all musicals are stupid after all.