Close shave...

Rating: 6/10 (29 December 2007)

The Great Goth (Tim Burton) has gifted us with many fine films over the years; rare have been the disappointments. Still, there has, on occasion, been unevenness. To wit: SWEENEY TODD. While the pale black palette is picture perfect, the music in this musical is something less than it might have been; all of a single note, as it were. Better all around if this had been a straightforward drama, sans songs; or, better still, had it been lighter in tone (like the bulk of Burton's work). The bloodletting- in a musical, remember- should've been counterbalanced. That it isn't accounts in no small degree for the overall unevenness. Next: POE- THE MUSICAL, with Depp as the tortured author (who may have been an unwitting carrier of TB, which could explain the untimely deaths of all those he loved)...