Review: Sweeney Todd

This is, apparently, the film Tim Burton always wanted to make. However, that kind of ambition, that type of desire, is often doomed to fall short: the artist is too close to the work to see its faults and to understand what an audience might find to enjoy about it. This, then, is what has happened with Burton's take on Sweeney Todd.

Burton's obsessions are well-established: Gothic emotions, copious blood-letting, ordinary men driven to horrific acts or to become outcasts, his wife in a corset, etc - and Todd is awash with them. However, the usual aching melancholy at the heart of Burton's work is consumed and lost by Todd's ravenous need for vengeance. Todd's world and his actions suggest an existence utterly devoid of hope; any act of human kindness is wasted; there is only horror, death and the need to kill; this is humanity at its very worst. Burton revels in his character's pityful lives, taking a gleeful approach as horror upon horror and tragedy upon tragedy is heaped upon them.

Under the weight of the tragedy (and, let it be said, Stephen Sondheim's music), Burton also seems to lose some of his directorial verve. There are some lighter Burton touches that hark back to earlier works - the lack of ceremony with which the corpses crash-land once tipped out of Todd's barber's chair (recalling Sleepy Hollow), the cockroaches crawling across Mrs Lovett's kitchen top and Mrs Lovett's dream sequence (reminiscent of Beetlejuice) - but ultimately this is grim entertainment.
Depp is superb, throwing himself into the role, perfectly capturing Todd's murderous zeal, while the rest of the cast acquit themselves well, particularly Sacha Baron Cohen. The production design, by Dante Ferreti, glories in the horror of old London town, death lurking at every turn.

It's difficult to rate this film - everyone in it is doing their very best - but, in the end, the only measure I have is how well it speaks to me, and a film so utterly devoid of hope, that expects and accepts the worst of humanity, is hard to truly enjoy.
That a film this dark can be produced by a major studio with major talent must be a a reflection of the times in which we live...
Score: 6.5/10

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Sweeney Todd
IMDb