Burton's Sweeney Todd with Depp is an excellent adaptation indeed

Rating: 10/10 (17 January 2008)

A few years ago, I watched on VHS the television version of the Broadway musical Sweeney Todd with Angela Lansbury and the Emmy-winning performance of George Hearn. I enjoyed it very much so I was psyched to see the movie version starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton. Despite, or maybe because of the deletion of many of the chorus segments, I thought this was an excellent version of the bloody Stephen Sondheim horror musical. Depp brings a David Bowie-quality to his singing in the title role. Helena Bonham Carter brings a creepily romantic vibe in her role of Mrs. Lovett, Todd's accomplice. Alan Rickman brings a crafty charisma to Judge Turpin. Timothy Spall, who I had just seen in Enchanted, brings a droll goofiness as Beadle Bamford. And Sacha Baron Cohen makes a humorously insolent Signor Adolfo Pirelli. Also compelling are Jamie Campbell Bower as the sailor who accompanies Todd back to England, Jayne Wisener as Todd's grown daughter-Johanna-who Anthony the sailor is smitten with and she in return, Laura Michelle Kelly as a beggar woman with a secret, and Ed Sanders as Toby-Pirelli's and, eventually, Mrs. Lovett's boy servant. Most of them provide compelling singing voices. Kudos to the Golden Globes for awarding the Best Actor-Comedy or Musical-statue to Mr. Depp (too bad, because of the writer's strike, he couldn't accept it in person). And congratulations to Mr. Burton for providing such an excellent movie of this most entertaining Stephen Sondheim horror musical.