Not fun enough.

Rating: 6/10 (27 December 2007)

Disclaimer: I am unfamiliar with the stage play.
This movie just wasn't fun enough.
Only a fool would expect a feel-good, delightful romp. However, for a musical billed as a black comedy, there wasn't enough consistency to the comic relief, and the film spirals downward into a very depressing ending. There is no closure at all to mitigate the emotional damage of the movie's final scene, which manages to be both disturbingly violent and anti-climactic. I left the theater in a state of minor post-traumatic stress.
Also, the enormous quantities of blood looked like red paint - a disappointment which drained much of the ghastliness and humor out of the gory scenes. I'd expect they could have afforded more realistic-looking blood!
The good points?
The film looks great. The score is decent. The middle of the movie was enjoyable to watch, with great squeamish giggles in the pie shop, a few funny songs, a jump or two, and one or two of the death scenes were darkly hilarious. The song "Pretty Women" is tense and perfectly performed. In fact, all of the performances were entertaining, with the exception of the two very dull young lovers, who aren't really important anyway. Perhaps they ought to have been, but I could have easily not bothered with them.
The very good: Ed Sanders is an incredible talent. Laura Michelle Kelly played an interesting role, and I would have liked more of her; I felt her part was cut down.
Depp and Carter have good chemistry, but I expected as much. Also, Sasha Baron Cohen plays a guy with a funny accent, and Alan Rickman plays a creepy snob. Although both are fantastic in their roles, they're cast to type.
I like Johnny Depp quite a lot and I have for a long time. He did sing well in this film, and he's certainly a "good actor" - but it's not really a challenge for him to play a drunken madman now is it? Johnny, try something different for a change!