Burton, Depp & Carter at their career best in one of the year's best films

Rating: 10/10 (7 January 2008)

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (2007) **** Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jayne Wisener, Ed Sanders, Laura Michelle Kelly. Epic triumph by master filmmaker Tim Burton in bringing the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical classic to the big screen and smartly re-uniting with frequent muse Depp (devilishly good here), as the titular tonsorial revenge seeker, a gentleman barber who was banished to prison for a framed crime overseen by a ruthlessly corrupt judge (Rickman at his slimiest), and is now back to his old neighborhood bloodthirsty for vengeance in the loss of his family by uniting forces with pie- maker Carter (equally impressive) by committing graphic murders and turning their prey into meat-pies (!) Ghastly Gran Guignol at its goriest overdone in bright, Technicolor old-school and a grand production design by the great Dante Ferretti, both tips of the hat to the great Hammer films of yore. The make-up by Nana Fischer's crew is top notch giving a funereal pallor to its leads underscoring their tragic existences. But kudos to Burton for having faith in his leads to actually sing on screen with great aclarity and emotion. One of the year's best.