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January 6, 2008
Under the Peg - Odd Choice For Christmas
It's probably a pretty grim reflection on my mental state when one considers I was giggling like a school girl through most of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
The movie is based on a Broadway musical by the same name. Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) was a simple London barber named Benjamin Barker. He had a beautiful wife named Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly), and a daughter, Joanna (Jayne Wisener), until a judge named Turpin (Alan Rickman) had him shipped off to prison on a trumped-up charge. The sentence was life, and fifteen years later, Sweeney escapes and returns to find that his daughter is in Judge Turpin's claws, and his wife had taken arsenic. He learns the state of things from his former downstairs neighbor, Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who runs a meat pie shop. He reestablishes his barber shop with her help and begins to plot his revenge.
I went into this movie a little doubtful on the subject of casting. None of the main characters were being played by names with any musical experience (At least, none that I was aware of). Johnny Depp especially caused me some concern as I had my doubts about his ability to portray a raving homicidal lunatic convincingly. I knew he could do hissing psychopath, and any time he goes without facial hair he looks indescribably creepy (His performance in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for example), but it turns out he played the roll of Sweeney Todd very well. While his voice does lack the proud operatic roar of George Hearns, he does carry a melody very well, and he manages to be absolutely terrifying when he needs to be. Admittedly, I feel Helena Bonham Carter could emote more than she did, but apart from that, her performance was wonderful. I feel it's worth mentioning, I've seen Sweney Todd In Concert, and a DVD of the Broadway performance, and each time I couldn't stand the Joanna Character. Somehow, the movie version managed to find the perfect woman for her role.
Whenever a story attempts to cross media boundaries (from the stage to the screen in this case) something will be lost in the translation. On stage, when you want to change the scenery, you need to distract the audience while the stage hands do their job. On the screen, you just turn off the camera and readjust everything. This leads to some very nice special effects and vivid sets, but removes the need for a chorus, and as a result some of the songs have been either removed or shortened. On the other hand, this movie has some of the best gratuitous bleeding I've seen outside of a Quenton Tarantino movie. Another thing I liked was that Tim Burton manages to make the characters on screen more like a collection of possessed dolls than a group of actors.
Overall: A wonderfull tale of revenge with some very good music.
Score: 8.5 Pegs out of 10
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