Knows what it is and to its benefit it doesn't worry about being more than this

Rating: Null/10 (20 February 2009)

Benjamin Barker returns to London with a hatred and vengeance in his heart that can only have come from lost love and false imprisonment. On his return he meets the crazed makers of the worst pies in London  Mrs Lovett  and a plan is hatched to use his barber show (now traded under the name Sweeney Todd) to extract revenge on those that ruined him. However as revenge evades him and his blood lust rises, his murderous rampage and his solution for getting rid of the bodies threaten to expose him or drive him to destruction  whichever comes sooner.
It took me some time to get to see Sweeney Todd as it hadn't appealed to me in the cinema and I kept putting off renting the DVD. Whenever I finally did get round to it recently I was quite pleasantly surprised to find how well it worked. The reason for this is that it functions perfectly as a big dark musical. The musical numbers are all strong because they are the film rather than being things that the film launches into and they fit the dark, blood tone of the film as the music is constantly brooding and, even when it soars you get the impression that any hope or beauty in the music will soon be sucked back down into the mire. You can see what attracted Burton to this and his Gothic sensibilities are perfect for this. His crew deliver a great set and costume base for him to film in and around  it feels dark and awful but yet also has the sense of unrealism that the film needs because ultimately it is a dark musical fantasy and it has no business feeling "real".
The performances match this as well because they are mostly very good "musical" performances, rather than dramatic performances built on small things. That said, Burton does use the camera very well to get closer to his characters and give you views (both physical lines of sight and also insights) that you would not get viewing this from the floor. Depp is impressive and he gets the "dark quirkiness" required  he looks the part, uses his face and body well while also delivering a great singing performance. Bonham-Carter is also good but her heavy "cockney" stuff is a bit distracting and did get in the way of me enjoying her in the way I did Depp. Rickman is a great central villain  although he has little time his presence does it all for him. Spall I was not so sure about  his character jarred with me and I didn't think his delivery fitted even though he was trying to do the same thing as everyone else. Cohen was a nice find and an enjoyable part of the film while Bower, Sanders and Wisener all deliver strong performances despite their ages and the cast they are starring beside. Special note to Wisener as well considering how infrequently I see people from the Coleraine/Ballymoney area of Northern Ireland show up in things.
Local loyalties aside though, Sweeney Todd works much better than I thought it would simply because it knows what it is and it sticks to it really well. This same approach will put off those who do not like musicals and the bloody effects may put off those who are musical fans but overall it is a Gothic musical with a rich comic vein running through it and it delivers on this.