Sit, sit you down, sit - and Attend The Tale...

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2008)

I've been obsessed with this musical for a few years now, and except for a couple of very minor quibbles, I was not disappointed. Tim Burton's visual style was an excellent complement to the story, and I absolutely loved the entire look of this film.
Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter - while not possessing voices that would work in a stage version of the show - completely captured their characters, and their vocals had that conversational quality that Sondheim's lyrics demand. The entire cast, actually, sounded great - I was particularly impressed by Sacha Baron-Cohen and Alan Rickman. I did miss some of the music that was cut - but in all fairness, certain theatrical conventions wouldn't work as well on screen. I feel that the roles of Anthony, Johanna, and the Beggar Woman suffered the most from the cuts.
Spoilers coming...I'm about to get a bit more specific...
The connection between Anthony and Johanna seemed a bit rushed in the film, whereas it's more developed in the full stage version. And - this may be a little harder for me to judge; I was trying to see it with the freshest eyes possible - I'm not sure that there was quite enough of an "A-ha!" moment for the audience BEFORE the Beggar Woman is killed. We see a glimpse of her face, and I'm sure some realized it - whereas on stage, there are many musical cues and the staging is generally an anvil-sized clue - but I think the audience definitely needs to realize who she is BEFORE Sweeney does, not at the same time. I just think it's much more tragic and horrifying if we have that revelation - just a glimpse of hope that he'll truly see her...but then he's been so devoured by his own desire for revenge, that he's blind to everything else, and by the time he realizes what he's done, it's too late.
I wanted to hear "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" sung at the end - but why did I want to hear it? The final tableau is chilling, beautiful, tragic, and so quietly unsettling...in a stage performance the Herrmann-esquire strings come in, and the characters step out and address the audience to deliver the final moral. And it is a reminder - and a relief - that we've just seen a play. We don't get that reprieve here - and it was absolutely the right decision. Would that more films leave us wishing for just a few more minutes at the end.