"You'll drip rubies...."

Rating: 9/10 (28 December 2007)

I have a definite problem with musicals. I have always had a hard time accepting characters suddenly bursting into song in movies, particularly in sad or glum situations which are not exactly very conducive to singing. Tim Burton achieved astonishing success in this area, even with non-musical fans like myself, with the brilliant Nightmare Before Christmas which, interestingly enough, is generally called "Tim Burton's..." despite the fact that he produced but didn't direct. But clearly, the movie exists in Tim Burton's unique and distinctive imagination.
Tim Burton's latest started off a little disappointing to me. I've been living in China for a year and am now home for the holidays, and this was one of the first movies I saw in the theater in the last 11 months, so I actually knew nothing at all about the movie as I walked in. All I knew was that Johnny Depp was in it and Burton directed, and that was enough for me. I was a little put off when I learned that it was a musical, indeed the first few musical numbers were a little tiring for me, but that was soon to change.
During the first 30 minutes, I was sure that Burton was trying to recreate his past success of setting musical films in his dark but charming worlds. After an hour, I started to think that he had really lost touch with his audience. At least I hoped so, as Depp sang his way through one throat-slitting after another. After an hour and a half, the charm of the story began to really set in, and by the closing scene, I was sure that this is yet another Burton/Depp classic. I was humming the songs to myself as I left the theater.
That all being said, the film is a technical masterpiece. Victorian London is re-created in stunning realism, although I like to think that even during the worst times of the industrial revolution London was never THAT dark and dirty. There are times when the plot is a bit confusing, but it's never unclear that the story covers a significant period of time and skillfully weaves several story lines together.
There will more than likely be a time during the movie when you will think that the copious amounts of spraying blood out of slit throats is just a little too much, as I did - - - well, I don't really know where to go with that. It's easy to say that the rest of the movies justifies the violence, or that this is typical of Tim Burton's style in this context, but something different happens here.
I spent almost the entire film in a state of disappointment and almost waiting for the end, but by the time the film ended everything had changed for me. It's unusual that a film doesn't become entirely appealing to me until literally the last show of the movie, but something like that happens here. Give this one a chance. Die hard fans are sure to be delighted no matter what, but the rest of you may need to have a little more of an open mind, even more than usual with Tim Burton films. I have a feeling that Burton earned a whole new breed of fans with Big Fish, and those are the people I'm talking to. This one might be best enjoyed more than once.