Humor is gone + Bonham Carter is horrible

Rating: 6/10 (21 December 2007)

Let's get the bad out of the way first. This piece did not need to have it's grimness, bleakness or grotesque violence emphasized; and material this dark doesn't need dark film stock; that's unimaginative and literal. Leave it to Burton though (I'm not a fan) to strike the wrong & most obvious chord. This story is so dark that Sondheim provided much humor to lighten the piece. Burton is still too much in love with his production dioramas, and he mutes every glimmer of humor, because he's still more committed to being Goth than to finding a suitable expression for a unique project. I imagine he liked Sweeney Todd because he saw something he could squeeze through the same exhausted & shallow filters his previous work came out of. He took an epic sweeping tragi-comedy and found only a horror movie in it. How literal... How small.
While one gets used to Johnny Depp's singing, Bonham Carter doesn't even register with her thin, dull, piping voice. Most of her lines are inexpressively sung and therefore her lyrics are utterly lost. Depp cold be playing opposite a mannequin for how little she brings to this. Nepotism handed her a star-making role, and she chose to sleepwalk through it. Any other female with a pulse and working facial muscles would have been a better choice. There has been talk of Deep getting an Oscar here; He does better than H.B.H., but just how nuanced is it to hold a scowl for an entire performance?
Although some have praised this for how it's been opened up, the best filmic moments come early. There are just too many grey shots of Depp looking out the window. These characters need things to do. All Burton can muster over and over is to point them at each other while they're singing. That isn't enough, and it isn't direction. It still feels stagy & Burton's signature artifice can't relieve that. The final moment is the wrong tableau to end on. It's just too, too bleak. We should have had a few seconds of Antony reunited with Joanna.
I'm amazed at how much they were able to keep from the play. They didn't muck it up too badly. The missing songs are forgiven. And I cried at least twice, from beautiful songs that Burton couldn't ruin no matter how 'adequate' or 'bland' his visuals; Sondheim is just that good. "My Friends," a love song sung to a razor, is still both powerful and chilling. "Not While I'm Around" which somehow, miraculously didn't get cut is an absolutely beautiful moment. Ed Sanders who sings it blows Bonham Carter off the screen, because he can actually sing (There's an idea!) and as an actor he's able to realize the drama of that moment; meanwhile Bonham Carter seems to only be concerned that her lack of effort matches from scene to scene.
Sondheims rousing orchestrations, despite changes, are as powerful as ever, and wonderful to hear on a movie theaters enhanced audio system. And his breathtaking musical structure (leit-motifs & revisited melodies) is largely intact. It reached me emotionally. I was crying as I drove home. But I just don't think that's the emotional terrain I had hoped a film Sweeney would cover. I'll be amazed if this material finds an audience.