Swing Your Razor Wide, Sweeney

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2007)

"Sweeney Todd," Tim Burton's big-screen adaptation of the classic Stephen Sondheim musical, was faced with the nearly impossible task of meeting the expectations of both Burton and Sondheim fans alike. So if it falls a little short, I'm willing to forgive and forget. I think Burton made probably the best film that could be made from Sondheim's musical, but his movie also confirmed something I already suspected: "Sweeney Todd" is inherently theatrical, and though Burton mostly succeeds in reinventing the musical as a film, he doesn't totally succeed in justifying the necessity of doing so.
I felt during "Sweeney Todd" the way I so often feel watching screen versions of stage musicals: the medium of film only serves to highlight the weaknesses of stage shows. Things simply work on stage that don't work on screen and vice versa, and that's the case here. I thoroughly enjoyed "Sweeney Todd" the movie, but I've enjoyed live performances of the show much more, and despite all of my efforts to forget the stage productions while watching the movie, I couldn't help but compare the two.
But let's talk about the movie. It's a deliciously macabre and dark story, and Burton deserves great credit for resisting the urge to make it more palatable to mainstream film audiences. Indeed, his interpretation of the tale is darker and bloodier than any stage version I've seen, and the film's final moments left me chilled and disturbed. Johnny Depp plays Sweeney, a vengeful barber who declares war on humanity for the wrongs he has suffered at the hands of a malicious judge and beadle. Helena Bonham Carter plays Mrs. Lovett, whose meat pie business becomes revitalized when she starts using Sweeney's victims as, ahem, ingredients. Carter and Depp have tremendous chemistry together, maybe because they look so much alike. Depp does a good job with Sweeney, but he's limited from the start because Sweeney is a one-dimensional character. Depp delivers an intense and frightening performance, but aside from the interest inherent in whether or not he'll be able to pull off Sondheim's notoriously difficult music (which he does just fine, thank you very much), I didn't find the performance itself that interesting. Carter, however, if a weaker singer than Depp, does wonders with Mrs. Lovett. This is the first version of "Sweeney Todd" I've seen where I actually felt bad about what happens to her character. Carter balances the role beautifully between ruthless accomplice and maternal caretaker. She doesn't play the role big and blowsy like Angela Lansbury did in the original stage version, or like Patti LuPone has played it, and she'll probably be criticized for taking too meek an approach to the material as a result, but I think her's works wonderfully as a film interpretation of the role.
Sondheim's score sounds glorious, but I was disappointed at the many cuts made to it. A few songs are missing altogether, and there's hardly one left that isn't at least shortened. My one bit of unqualified praise goes to the film's visual style, which is magnificent. The production design couldn't be improved upon.
"Sweeney Todd" might get better with subsequent viewings, once the automatic screen-to-stage comparison is flushed out of the system and one can watch the movie for what it is. As it is, I liked the movie a lot without thinking it was one of the best of the year.
Grade: A-