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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street


I just saw this this morning and am pretty damned thrilled with how it came off. As a long time fan of the musical, and after looking forward to this for about a year, I was not disappointed.
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The art direction is really wonderful. The palatte of drab stark contrasts and occasional flashes of red, red blood are beautiful and create an otherworldly ambiance. The makeup was especially fantastic. The camera work plays up the extremeness of the situations very effectively.

I knew Johnny Depp sang, but singing Sondheim is another thing and he does it beautifully. He also manages to carry off the intensity of the character with full investment and yet without going over the top. In this role, that is a feat of herculean balance.

I'd heard gripes going in that Helena Bonham Carter's singing was not up to par. I think she was great overall, but that her role suffered the most from the one complaint I have about this film: the phrasing of some of the singing was smoothed out, to the detriment of meaning and humor. Mrs Lovitt is a much funnier character (and therefore much more terrifying) when you can understand everything she's saying.

I guess I do have one other minor quibble, and that was the casting of a boy in the role of Pirelli's assistant. I can see why they did it, but it undermines the meaning of an event late in the plot.

Otherwise, the cast is flawless. Rickman and Cohen embellish their already impressive reputations in these turns and all those introduced here are excellent.

If it's your first exposure to this music, you probably won't walk out whistling any of the numbers. They missed an opportunity by cutting "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" - I'd have put it in the closing credits, at least. But the music is moving, beautiful and effective at conveying both the emotion and the story.

9.5/10 and definitely see it in theaters.