Tim Burton's bloody, brilliant and stylistically superior film

Rating: 8/10 (25 January 2008)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Top 10 - 2007
Top 50 Musicals - All Time
Rated R for graphic bloody violence
Tim Burton's adaptation of the bloody stage musical, based on the legend of a barber who slit his customers' throats is no disappointment. Stephen Sondheim's low key songs are wonderfully suited to the dark, gloomy and often tragic nature of the film.
The story is a simple one - Once upon a time there was a barber on Fleet Street, that had a beautiful wife and a newly born young daughter - life was good and simple for Benjamin Barker, until a corrupt and malevolent judge eyes his wife and makes it his intention to make her his. Judge Turpin falsely convincts Benjamin and he is sent into exile Down Under. Until he returns back many years later, a changed man, who has seen and lived evils , a gloomy man who is returning for revenge, for salvation. That man is Sweeney Todd. Slowly, Todd manages to set up his old barber shop, with the help of his old neighbour Mrs. Lovett, who makes the worse pies in London. The duo work together and plan on how to get back the Judge (and his unceremonious, ugly apprentice).
Johnny Depp is Sweeney Todd and Johnny Depp also executes one of the year's best performances alongside Tim Burton's equally able wife, Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Lovett, with such edge and raw power. Tim Burton's direction is artful and graphic, adding an element to the film's beautiful style. The art direction is also great. This is not the London we are shown in other cheerful musicals; this is the London of the alleyways, dark, depressing corners, a city ravaged by petty crooks and corrupt officials.
While not a great fan of musicals (although I do enjoy some of the classics), Sweeney Todd was a satisfying experience. A bloody, brilliant and ultimately tragic story displayed beautifully by one of cinema's most interesting (and often unnoticed) filmmakers. A very respectable achievement.
8/10