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Sweeney Todd
Dec. 26th, 2007 09:47 amOne word review: WOW.
Slightly longer review: Assuming that you can accept the structure of the Broadway musical - that everyone sings and that the outcome of events often revolves on what could be dismissed as coincidence in other forms of entertainment - you will find one of the finest adaptations ever of a musical. Depp is amazing, as is Bonham Carter, as is everyone else in the cast. And Burton may have outdone himself as a director. The look and feel and pacing and camera work are nearly perfect.
Of course, you can argue that with the Sondheim score to start with, it was hard to really go wrong. But note if you will that no one have adapted anything with a Sondheim score or libretto since perhaps A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. His lyrics are difficult, his music wonderfully discordant when you least expect it, his vision of the world dark and complex. I think that many good directors would have changed (and ruined) something. Burton, however, has long had the same kind of twisted and strange vision. Thus the creation of a film worth seeing.
Be warned, however, that it's as gory as a film about Victorian murder and cannibalism should be. If you are faint of heart, you might want to stay home. The violence is also about what we've come to expect from Burton, often exaggerated and not quite realistic but still brutal.
Everyone else, though - especially anyone who is a fan of Depp, Sondheim or Burton - will love this.
Slightly longer review: Assuming that you can accept the structure of the Broadway musical - that everyone sings and that the outcome of events often revolves on what could be dismissed as coincidence in other forms of entertainment - you will find one of the finest adaptations ever of a musical. Depp is amazing, as is Bonham Carter, as is everyone else in the cast. And Burton may have outdone himself as a director. The look and feel and pacing and camera work are nearly perfect.
Of course, you can argue that with the Sondheim score to start with, it was hard to really go wrong. But note if you will that no one have adapted anything with a Sondheim score or libretto since perhaps A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. His lyrics are difficult, his music wonderfully discordant when you least expect it, his vision of the world dark and complex. I think that many good directors would have changed (and ruined) something. Burton, however, has long had the same kind of twisted and strange vision. Thus the creation of a film worth seeing.
Be warned, however, that it's as gory as a film about Victorian murder and cannibalism should be. If you are faint of heart, you might want to stay home. The violence is also about what we've come to expect from Burton, often exaggerated and not quite realistic but still brutal.
Everyone else, though - especially anyone who is a fan of Depp, Sondheim or Burton - will love this.
