Happy New Year & Sweeney Todd
This entry was posted on 1/4/2008 9:45 AM and is filed under Movie Reviews.
Happy New Year to All!! No more 2007. Parts of last year I could have definitely done without, but one very good thing happened that I will be forever thankful...
Over the Holidays I went and saw 'Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bohnam-Carter and Alan Rickman. This is one of those movies that you only have to see a few seconds of to tell that it was directed by Tim Burton. Everything from the lighting to the settings to the costumes just drips of his dark, morose style. I like this style mainly because it is unique and it is entertaining to just look at all of the details. The red color of blood tends to stand out on the backdrop of mostly greyscale colors which makes for an interesting effect.
As usual, I won't give away any 'spoilers.' The plot is one of revenge. Johnny Depp plays a successful barber in 19th century London with a beautiful wife and baby daughter. A local judge (Alan Rickman) brings the barber up on false charges in order to steal his wife. 15 years later Sweeney comes back to London to exact his revenge with the help of a meat pie maker (Helena Bohnam-Carter) who is enamored with Sweeney. Most of the story flows fairly well until the ending, which seemed rushed to me. It was like a Star Trek episode that takes 55 minutes to get the beginning and middle told and the last 5 minutes to pull out a last minute miracle that saves the crew/ship/planet.
Oh, did I happen to mention the movie is a musical?? Yes, it really is Johnny, Helena and Alan singing. Helena is definitely the best of the bunch, but the guys do a satisfactory job of holding there own. Some of the songs are very funny, especially Helena signing about how she's the worst pie maker in London.
Sacha Cohen (a.k.a. Borat) makes an appearance as a rival barber in the movie as well. He does a pretty good job, but you can clearly tell that his acting skills are not on the same level as the rest of the cast. Sacha has his niche in movies and this wasn't it.
Overall this movie is one that I think everyone should see at least once. IMHO it is definitely better than the last couple of musicals that I've seen (Moulin Rouge & Chicago). Then again, I might be a little biased in the fact that I'm a big fan of Burton, Depp and Carter.
