A Grimm Fairytale absent of Magic and full with Caution

Rating: 10/10 (26 November 2008)

The story of the man Sweeny Todd is of vengeance and not of too much else, and of what little theme there is to convey, the film conveys it all in such a way so for a child to even understand it (maybe). We're shown how obsession rots the human psyche and soul through Sweeny, who is shown void of anything humane and thinks always of murdering the Judge who ruined his life so many years earlier before when the film starts. He becomes a sort of killing perfectionist who thinks only of killing so to satisfy his wants for personal vengeance, and can only sometimes subdue himself by 'practing'; and sometimes 'practing' so for there to be even a sort of montage, by the middle of the movie for instance. He befriends and makes an accomplice out from the women Mrs. Lovett, who owns a small shop inside of London; she sales in her store meat-pies which she describes as being 'the worst in all of London', and because of this, a bargain is made between the two. Sweeny will be allowed to commit terrible acts right above from the women so to allow for her to make meat-pies from the flesh of said victims of terrible acts.
Oh yeah...this is a musical too, right...yeah...who in the name of God could even make this sort of movie...oh...I see, and as such, Johnney Depp stars as Sweeny Todd (of course) and he dose do the character utter justice, in that you fully believe in his ability to kill ANY person and that he can even justify it all because of how it is human life has no real significance. As such, humans are depicted as meat piles, being cut up and fed to the masses, and during musical numbers even, though most often, the transition between the two seems invisible, in that you forget that singing is not common place during idle conversations. The songs even drip with the film's melancholy, so to not stray the story from it's brutal subject matter.
The film plays out like the fables told by the Brother's Gimm, though it is without any breed of wonder, and again, this movie seems simplistic as all hell, so for a child to even understand. It works as a sort of cautionary tale, told through darkness and graphic R-rated violence, warning of obsession and of revenge.
10/10