Barely Misses The Mark

Rating: 5/10 (28 December 2007)

Bearing in mind what Tim Burton films are like, I was still disappointed with the end result of the film adaptation of SWEENEY TODD. Most of the problems lie in the fact that Burton makes an already dark and gory tale even darker and gorier. This is precedence over plot and character detail, even cutting songs from the original show that greatly helped these areas.
In discussing the film with my fellow moviegoer, we agreed that the movie does suffer from having "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" excluded from this version. By including any passerby that the camera zooms by (which in this day of CGI, such editing was inevitable) or lingers on, Burton could have easily made this work, too - what a shame. Some cuts and changes, do better the story, such as the toning down of Johanna by making her less freaky a person and less shrieky a singer.
Unfortunately every plus like the aforementioned instance, is met with more than one minus, such as the way the character of the homeless woman in brought into the movie. By introducing her so late into the story (also by cutting an earlier song of hers), we wonder, why bother at all? She becomes a tacked-on subplot, an afterthought of the screenplay. It's no wonder Johnny Depp looks to feel almost nothing for her at the end of the film.
I am also on the ilk that thinks principle characters should not be shown gruesomely dying in the picture frame, unless it serves a clear purpose (e.g. Janet Leigh in PSYCHO). If not, then it only becomes pure exploitation (and hopefully I've given enough hints as to which character I'm speaking of without totally giving it away). This only becomes more apparent as you watch certain characters die and ask, "how come they got an explicit death scene and not this character?" What is the point, indeed...
The movie also highlights contrivances in the story itself: how, out of all the people in London, could this homeless woman have encountered all the characters in the story on separate occasions? It's because she's there merely to keep the storytelling wheels turning, and when the story is slimmed down to a stage presence, it seems to make more sense. Likewise, the absence of police, who appear at the end of the play, but not the film. With townspeople disappearing left and right, how could they not have intervened sooner? The movie leaves us with these questions of logic, which, even for a musical, should have been addressed.
As for the principles, they all do an okay job. If any criticism is to be made about the restraint in their singing and acting, the finger should be pointed at how the film was directed. Burton seems to think that he can counterbalance each person by giving them an overly cartoony exterior (Sweeney's Bride-Of-Frankenstein hair) and a very, very subtle interior; subtle to the point of shallow character depth and a communication barely audible (and God only knows how many lines I missed because the actors spoke so quietly). The play seems to have worked successfully with these values reversed - underplayed, but period costumes with bombastic personalities.
Timothy Spall -- whom I hold in high regard, but know he accepts bad scripts sometimes -- is sadly reduced to nothing more than a sniveling rat, complete with bulging eyes and gnarly teeth. I pictured Beadle the way he's seen on stage and thought Spall would fit in so seamlessly. Here his craft is wasted on a one-dimensional, stereotypical villain - another sad, shame of the movie.
Sacha Baron Cohen, in a blink-and-you'll-miss-him kind of role, is almost totally pointless in being cast. So long as the film had a big name like Depp to draw audiences, any person could have been cast in the role of Pirelli. Most of his songs and lines are reduced to nothing, coupled with an accent that is too difficult to understand. Visually, the mustache bit worked quite well on the stage in revealing his con-artistry, which is not used in the film. Burton only wants to make it known that Borat was cast in his film and wears a ludicrously funny wig before he might be bumped off.
Kudos are to be given to Edward Sanders, the child who was rightfully chosen to play Toby. It's nice to finally have someone who is close to the age of the character because, judging from the stage version, I seemed to have it in my head that Toby was just supposed to be a dwarf. His confident singing voice and charismatic involvement makes an impact over the course of the picture.
It seems that the movie seems is solely impressionable to people because it is opera-like in its music and jarring in its horror - "the perfect horror musical." These extremes are only due to the fact that the music has been slimmed down to just under two hours and the dark comedy is stripped to be just, well, dark. You could really just watch the opening credits and know everything about everything that follows. You could just stop watching altogether, and not have to ask yourself questions like, "why is Sweeney on a boat with that guy?" To anyone who knows the story, you'd know Sweeney was a prisoner, but that seems to have been rushed in the movie if you don't pay close attention.
Another question to be asked is, "when is Burton going to NOT use Depp to be some glaring freak in his movies?" Hopefully the same day Burton decides that making every movie to be a moving Edward Gory illustration has placed him in a rut. SWEENEY is not a complete waste of time, but it is not half of what it could have been, and Burton most definitely needs a change of scenery.