Many spots of brilliance, but falls short of the Lansbury/Hearn theatre version

Rating: 6/10 (3 November 2018)

I'm a huge fan of Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter is one of the most versatile actresses in the business - - - but I still came away from this film disappointed. Carter, I thought, was good but miscast; Mrs. Lovett, I think, works best as an older character. Angela Lansbury, after all, was Stephen Sondheim's and Hal Prince's personal choice to play Mrs. Lovett on Broadway, and there are hints in the libretto as well, such as " . . . a woman alone, with limited wind. . . ", that strongly point to an older Mrs. Lovett.
Depp, I felt, was not so much miscast as misdirected. His Sweeney is a humourless man, which deprives many of the songs of the flashes of savage fun that George Hearn brought to the part. ("A Little Priest" and "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" are the most obvious examples.)
I saw Lansbury and Len Cariou in the original Broadway production (damn, I wish I still had the Playbill!), and my opinions are certainly coloured by having seen the stage version and the Lansbury/Hearn film first, but still - - - despite being a thoroughly effective production, with some screen effects that do improve on the original, this film remains a distant second to Broadway.