A cut above the rest. A cut across the neck. That's something to sing about!

Rating: 8/10 (5 February 2008)

Gone are the old days of the Musical, with classics such as Oliver! (1968), Paint Your Wagon (1969) and Grease (1978), and we may have even said "Those were the days", well, I'm happy to say that they are now back; with a vengeance.
Yeah, maybe a Disney cartoon musical may keep popping up every couple of years, or even a High School Musical, but this is down to basics and now the good old, the grand opera days of the Musical, and with the help of movie director Tim Burton, is, once again, finding its voice.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street's modern adaptation can go back to the early 1970's with English playwright Christopher Bond and his own unique brand of Victorian barbarism. It was to be Stephen Sondheim who then turned this Gothic legend into musical myth.
Tim Burton may have his leading man strapped to the chair once more; this being their seventh collaboration together, but it is definitely the sinister and bitter Benjamin Barker alias Sweeney Todd who steals the limelight here. Wronged and robbed of his love and life by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) we see his return some years later to take back what was once lost and to seek solace in the plans of avenger and angel of death. Albeit with a little help from his friends; friends of the smooth, sharp and silvery kind.
Lost and soulless in a too familiar town, London town, his return and his chance meeting with Mrs. Lovett, self proclaimed as the worse pie maker in all of London, this partnership of retribution and love is the devils play and the devils own making.
The scene is set and the die is cast for the dramatic duo to play their respective parts, and with a cutthroat razor in one hand and a rolling-pin in the other and a song to sing. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is on its way to becoming the darkest, bloodiest, horrific and sinister sing-a-longs that has ever hit our cinema screens. Oh we've seen the like of The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and the Japanese cult classic Katakuri-ke no kôfuku (The Happiness of the Katakuris, 2001), all playing the murder rap, as stage plays or whatnot's then turned into film musicals, and this latest edition is no exception. But this is exactly what it pronounces, one doesn't hold a set of cut throat razors just to show off ones collection of silverware, here we see them used to full extravagance and malicious brutality, this musical, this movie, of the avenging demon is up close and very personal. There are no misconceptions: it's very sharp and it's unforgiving in the dealings of this grotesque and focused plan of action. Nothing is missed. Nothing is hidden. Nothing in what is seems when you enter the Barber of Fleet Street's establishment. You've been warned.
The narrative of song is superb, set with Tim Burton's trademark of the surreal and the dark and mysterious. We see a London in its down trodden glory of this Victorian age that once consisted of Jack the Ripper, Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species and the possibility of one Sweeny Todd; Man, myth or legend, whatever be the truth, it is in this film that we see, and hear, some great compositions. The storyline is given its sinister overtone with titles as "No Place Like London", "The Worst Pies In London", "My Friends", "A Little Priest" and "Not While I'm Around" to whet our palate and when the music stops let the turmoil of madness ring their Bow bells proper.
Not done to the extremes of the 1968 Oliver! where we see the streets burst into song and dance, this is a rendition of two very twisted souls and their dialogue that is sung, and spoken, to propel the dark forces of the malice content. Charming but at the same time very disturbing to hear words sung in the lines of "My Friends", those silver plated friends, and the work they shall do when slicing the necks of those most deserving, or as the case of "A Little Priest" undeserving. Often is the case with actor-turned-singer Mr. Depp does his best and with the right atmospehre and proper training pulls it off with his own blend of style and charisma. It could be worse; at least he wasn't painting his wagon whilst being born under a "Wand'rin' Star". Ouch!
With a cast such as Timothy Spall OBE (Officer of the Order of British Empire), strangely again playing a Cads heavy-man, and Alan Rickman and the simply delightful Helena Bonham Carter all playing their parts, and singing them too, with individual merit and prowess. This is a film that takes on the norm and has done itself proud to have turned a Stage Play into a highly recognisable art form such as the Movie Musical, daring and challenging to the same-old-same-old's out there, then again, if it wasn't it wouldn't be a Tim Burton movie, would it? You know what to expect, if you don't, then who knows, it may have been a very close shave