Disappointing Musical

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2007)

I saw this movie today and had a generally mixed reaction. It's basically "OK" but the storyline doesn't really to me provide enough interest to sustain a full length motion picture. Also, although any new musical production is to me a cause for celebration, this one just doesn't come near to matching other modern musicals in quality or appeal.
Music and songs naturally make for a big part of the appeal of any musical like this. And I am simply delighted that the movie musical has gained something of a revival within the past half decade or so. However, with some exceptions, I just didn't really enjoy the music and songs  not nearly as much, anyway, as in other modern musicals, like Moulin Rouge, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago and Rent.
Casting and acting seem to me to be very solid throughout this movie, with two exceptions. One is Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs Lovett. Carter was perfectly cast and I thought gave a wonderful, exceptionally strong performance. On the other hand, I really thought Jamie Campbell Bower was either unconvincingly cast as Anthony, or was given a scripting for Anthony that was unconvincing. Johanna after all finds her heart captured by an Anthony who is supposed to be a handsome, romantic man she sees from a window  and whose chief distinguishing features appear to be androgyny. I can believe in love-at-first-sight for a "manly" man; or in love-at-first-sight for a male lead known as a "heart-throb"; or in love-at-second-sight for a "metrosexual" man whose character or personality, captures the heart of a lovely lady. But Johanna has only brief glimpses of Anthony in the street. She has no "manly looks" to go on; she has no special "Errol Flynn" appeals to go on; she has never met him, so can't fall in love based on his "personality". All in all, the response of Johanna to this Anthony is just not convincing in a musical like this.
The script contained other problems that to me undermined the storyline by giving us events that didn't seem consistent or credible. The movie is not in a "realist" genre, so I'm not at all interested in every little detail being somehow "credible". However, even in a musical, I need at least enough a to help me to a "suspension of disbelief"; and at minimum, obviously inconsistent details don't need to be flaunted in my face. Alas, the script did exactly that every now and then. For example, early on, a charlatan is selling a "miraculous elixir" said to promote a lush head of hair. Sweeney challenges him to a contest in which he and the charlatan are both to give the fastest, cleanest shave. Up till that point, there's no slightest indication that the peddler is also a barber. And there's not the least excuse offered for a face-off in which facility in shaving is supposed to establish credibility, or lack thereof, for an elixir promoting fast hair growth elixir. Similarly, there's a point at which Sweeney's daughter tosses a key out a window to a stranger she's never met. Things like that leave me scratching my head, and it's hard to "buy into" a story I'm constantly scratching my heard over.
I did like some things: the sheer darkness of the conception, and of the settings, and of the humor  these things I really enjoyed. The "life at the beach" sequence was a funny and light-hearted sequence that provided a welcome parody of Sweeney's perpetual gravity.
All in all, although Sweeney Todd is to me "OK", on the whole it just doesn't make for a good musical.