Tim Burton in his element

Film review: Sweeney Todd

The music of Stephen Sondheim is an acquired taste. It is complex and original. Once in a while a song does sometimes grow on you like the hauntingly beautiful Send in The Clowns. However, for the most part, his notes seldom fall where you think they should, the songs lack quick recall and subtexts of pain and fear permeate even the happy melodies.

Film director Tim Burton loves the darkness. He took the primary colored Batman and dyed it in assorted shades of black. He took Charlie and the Chocolate Factory out of a candy wonderland to the bleak gray of cold and rainy London. Strangely though, his unique way of looking at things is what enables his audience to find joy and inspiration in what is really the unlikeliest of subjects. Think Edward Scissorhands.

Given these qualities in their works, it is not difficult to assume that Sondheim and Burton would complement each other. If Burton were to think of doing a musical, his best choice would be never anything by Rodgers and Hammerstein, but one by Sondheim. It will be something dark, weird, gruesome even and given their flair for finding macabre humor in the mundane, also sick.

With book, music and lyrics by Sondheim, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, certainly fills the bill. A most unusual musical, it tells the tale of a serial-killing barber. You know how it is, a man, totally trusting, sits on a chair to get a shave. The barber wields his oh-so sharp razor on his cheeks, his chin, his upper lip and then his neck where the aortal artery is located. One false move, a fatal cut, then blood comes spurting out and the man is dead.

Just another accident. But not so in Sweeney Todd, because here the barber is out to kill. He wants to avenge how he was unjustly convicted and exiled to Australia by a corrupt, lecherous judge, how his wife was kidnapped and raped by this same judge, how she later committed suicide, and how this judge is now preparing to marry his daughter.

With issues like those, it is hard to blame Sweeney for going further than slicing throats. Thanks to a lovelorn accomplice, his landlady, Mrs. Lovett, his victims are ground up into little pieces and baked in meatpies. Sold or given away to unwitting foodies, these are adjudged delicious. Yuk! Yuk! Yuk! Get you to the bathroom now! The plot is the stuff that horror flicks are made of but Sondheim found a musical in it and Burton has now brought it to the big screen in all its gory glory.

It is gory and it is indeed glorious. Masterfully executed, it is in fact, a breathtaking experience. Sondheim’s intense, exciting score thrills as much as it chills. Do not look for familiar hit songs. This composer does not work that way but every musical number will be watched with salivating relish by everybody. As required in all good musicals, these provide insight into the characters and serve to progress the action.

Burton is in his best macabre element. He has never toyed with anything as diabolical as this. Together with Sondheim and aided by an excellent cast and crew, he takes moviegoers on an entertaining ride across a 19th century London glaced throughout with blood, revenge, mayhem and lip-smacking fun.

 Of course, the results would not have been as delicious without Johnny Depp as Sweeney. Depp is the quintessential Burton star. They worked together in Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hallow and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Depp even voiced the reluctant groom in The Corpse Bride. It was but natural for Burton to think of Johnny as the perfect choice to play one of the most unforgettable roles ever conceived for a musical.

A musical. That seemed like the stumbling block. I remember Depp as a rocker in Crybaby but can he sing the truly difficult Sondheim songs? Burton who probably believes that there is not anything that Johnny cannot do, asked him anyway and proved himself right. Depp has a light, clear baritone that is so expressive you cannot help but feel sympathy or whatever you want for his murderous barber. It has often been said that the best actors make the best singers. Depp is a wonderful example. I cannot help but imagine what greatness he and Burton could have done with that bland film version of Phantom of the Opera.

But forget that, Sweeney Todd is certainly the better film. Burton has set a new standard by which all movie musicals will now be measured. I’m honestly surprised that everything in it is great. I marvel at Burton’s choice of actors. Helena Bonham Carter as the obsessed Mrs. Lovett. Alan Rickman as the rapist judge, Sacha Baron Cohen as the rival barber and everybody else. You can also come up with superlatives about the sets, the costumes, photography, editing, etc.

I love musicals but I stayed away from Sweeney Todd because of its plot. I could not accept that a musical should make murder or cannibalism so frivolous. I watched the film because I was curious about Depp but came prepared to leave should the violence become too sick to watch. That did not happen. As presented by Burton, Sweeney Todd has a grotesque beauty that is irresistible.

Just a thought, a Burton-Depp teamup would be perfect for another horror musical, Jekyll and Hyde. Wonder how Johnny will fare singing This is the Moment.