Sweeney Todd, The Review
I saw Sweeney Todd at the movies last night. It was a mixed bag. The movie was very faithful to the script, which I applaud. On the other hand, it took awhile for Depp to find his footing (and he never really decided on an accent), Helena Bonham Carter was either miscast or suffered from poor direction, and Burton sacrificed the black humor of Sondheim’s play for the standard-issue gothic melodrama Burton applies to so much of his work, subtly applied with a sledgehammer.
Frankly, the best performance in the movie came from Sascha Baron Cohen in the bit part of Pirelli. Cohen jumped into the role, which really showed off his ability to inhabit a character: in my opinion, the performance was worthy of Peter Sellers. Maybe it’s because of his on-the-spot work as Borat/Ali G./Bruno, but Cohen has an instinct for theatre that seems to elude Depp and Carter. This couldn’t have been more obvious in “Pirelli’s Magical Elixer”, during which Cohen delivers his stanzas with gusto and relish, and Depp and Carter practically recite theirs with all the enthusiasm of a high school student forced into the drama class by his over-zealous parents.
That’s not to say that Depp wasn’t up to the task: by the last 45 minutes of the movie or so, Depp really stepped into the role, really tapping into the obsessive thirst for revenge that’s at the core of Todd. And maybe it’s not his fault that it took so long to get there: it was hard to take him seriously with everything larded with Burton’s flatulent gothiness. And that was a key weakness of the film for me: I never forgot that I was watching Burton’s vision. I get it, Tim: Todd and Lovett are creepy characters, which is indicated by their wacky hair, their black-and-white wardrobes (the White Stripes travel in time to 1880), the pancake makeup they apparently apply with a garden trowel, and the football paint around their eyes. Ultimately, the overly-contrived darkness undermined my suspension of disbelief.
After reading more about Helena Bonham Carter, I am surprised that she was so disappointing in the role of Mrs. Lovett, but this may have as much to do with the fact that she looked like Edward Scissorhands in a dress as the the fact that the character’s inate humor was never allowed to surface. Mrs. Lovett without the laughs and the bawdy humor is a shadow, an allegory, an empty character. And so it was that the hilariously gruesome song “Have a Little Priest” didn’t get so much as a chuckle from the audience. Nor did “God, That’s Good”. “By the Sea” came off as a non-sequitor, although a montage featuring Depp-as-Todd glowering humorlessly in a variety of venues gave me a sardonic chuckle as I reflected that the play was as funny as it was bleak.
Mrs. Lovett isn’t the star of the play, but she is the most important supporting character, offsetting the bitterness and lust for revenge in Todd. That’s why her black sense of humor is so important. Even Shakespeare’s bleakest plays had some comedic scenes. In Burton’s version, there’s practically nothing of the sort. Worse, there really didn’t seem to be any chemistry between Todd and Lovett in the movie, and that doesn’t make sense when you have two characters sing a gleeful song about how everyone deserves to die, and they will go into business together as they carry out this mission.
So yeah, the movie was good. It gets a solid B from this nonprofessional. But in my opinion, you should save a few bucks and rent the Lansbury/Cariou version available on DVD. After all, I liked the original play so much I got Sweeney Todd tattooed on my left leg.
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