Sweeney Todd: Tim Burton, Hollywood's New Musical Man

Thank God for Gothic Expressionism. Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd is a welcome corrective to Hollywood's recent spate of song-and-dance movies from biopics to film-to-Broadway-to-film remakes, darker than eyeliner, bloodier than a Slayer concert, and with almost no saccharine in sight.

Sweeney Todd is Burton's best movie in nearly a decade, and, along with Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas it's one of the best movie musicals of recent years. He's practically the new Vincente Minnelli: his last three movies, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, and Sweeney Todd, have all been musicals. Burton's a director who has spent his career meditating on a few things, all of which converge on Halloween: death, blood, darkness, the limits of sanity, and bringing legend to life. Generally, the more of those themes he can fit into a movie, the more successful he's been, and they're all in this one. Indeed, Sweeney Todd wraps together a number of threads in Burton's career, marrying the cold Victorian England of Corpse Bride to the grey palette and voluptuous beauty of Sleepy Hollow, and marrying onscreen his two favorite actors, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, who have each appeared in at least five of his films.

In fact, the whole film looks a bit like a mishmash of things we've seen before -- Depp first appears aboard a ship speaking an accent that sounds like a sober Jack Sparrow, with hair like the Bride of Frankenstein, makes blood gush like in Kill Bill, and is forcefully romanced by Helena Bonham Carter like in Corpse Bride, while wearing pancake makeup like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the whole thing is a staging of a 28-year old musical version of a 150-year old urban legend. So while it's nowhere near as novel as Burton's stunning early-career movies, it's satisfying nonetheless, as repertory from a director who knows his strengths.

The best scenes are the best songs: Bonham Carter's tour de force, "The Worst Pies in London," and duets like "My Friends" and "Pretty Girls." As in Nightmare Before Christmas, the songs are better integrated into the screenplay than in typical Hollywood stage readings -- the actors sing in the same register as they speak, and move fairly easily from the dialogue bridges to sung setpieces. The traditional knock against Burton is that he's better at atmosphere than at pacing, but because the pre-existing songs frame the story, Burton is able to revel in the comfort of creating the backdrop, as the New York Times reported, "not Victorian London but horror-movie London." As such, it feels much more like a backlot than a true city, claustrophobic, twisted and stylized like all Burton's work, gorgeously surreal.

Unlike many musicals (but like much Sondheim), Sweeney Todd is rather operatic in its emotional arc, grisly, grim, and intense. Even though it's very funny in parts, it's not a comedy. As a result, it's a bit hard to pigeonhole by genre, which along with its lack of an inspirational message may hurt it at the box office. On the other hand, it was nominated for Golden Globes before it was even released, so it is likely to hang around theaters for a while, even if it doesn't do blockbuster sales. Given the gore, it won't be for everyone, but it's very good for what it is. With any luck, the audience it deserves will find it.

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Comments

[Delphine]

I disagree. I never saw the theatrical production, but I have a feeling it took itself a bit less seriously. This version was macabre without humor, tragic and depressing. It is beautifully made, but the pacing was off. Maybe some things just don't translate from theater to film - once you open the story onto the world, we expect to see progression and arc that there is no room for on stage.

The theater full of folks who saw this with me did NOT like this film. One of my companions fell asleep. We all looked a bit puzzled. Not that we didn't understand the story, but perhaps because we wondered where those 2.5 hours went and all we had was a queasy feeling in our guts.

If there are jokes in this film, we ALL missed them.

[dullahan]

I quite agree--this is Mr. Burton's best, a real achievement. I felt like he took a step back from this one and let the story guide him, and there was hardly a swirl in sight (and where there was, it underscored something wonderful). Stellar performances from everyone, in particular a (for me) redemptive performance from Ms. Bonham Carter. While I felt the film was lacking some of the intimacy of the stage production, Burton et al made tremendously clever and pragmatic use of the magic of film--if it could not achieve the intimacy of theater--to fill in some gaps theater could never fill (the treatment of "By the Sea", for example). The humor appears to depend on the audience, interestingly; the first audience I attended the tale with didn't catch nearly any of the jokes--ironically the jokes sailed by in haste, impatiently. The second audience I attended the tale with seemed to catch every one, it was as if the film slowed down. I haven't any idea what the difference was. So perhaps pacing is an issue.
Even as a long-time devotee of the stage show, and the legendary original cast, this version of Sweeney Todd can't come out on DVD fast enough for me!

[MrsWakely]

Yeah, the movie petered out about halfway through. I stayed till the 3/4 mark, then sat outside in the hallway at the multi-plex waiting for my wife and kids, who came out at the end with unflattering things to say about what I missed. It's not so much not casting voices who can act, although I would argue that voices are a must with Sondheim, its more that, never having seen Sweeny, I was struck by how the score sounded like a Sondheim parody, totally predictable, and I couldn't find one kick-ass tune in the bunch. It seems he relies on a mid-level final note, followed by a huge orchestral crescendo to get him to the next bit every time. It was utterly devoid of humor, except for Sacha Cohen, and it seemed like the whole damn movie was the two of them looking out the window, or singing in a barren room about... what exactly? How pissed Sweeny was? How much she cared? Why, exactly did she care? And, the young man, out of every single window in London, settles across the street from the ward, and Sweeny's daughter? Maybe that works in the theater, but it made little sense on screen. And, can Tim Burton do anything but cast Johnny Depp and paint his face, twirl his hair up, and make him act spooky? Is there anything else in the bag Tim?

[davidly]

Ranking it one of the best movie musicals in recent years can't be saying much. I'd think you'd have to consider the best and worst in that category to have a list at all.

[wm1066]

The blood was too much for me! It seemed that the Art Direction drove this movie not the story. Showing a persons neck in close up being cut over and over again made me very angry. Tim made this movie into a slasher movie. And I won't be going to any of his next films.
I new this was a horror story to begin with but the full skreen blood letting was beyond the pale!

[rektruax]

I've got tickets for tonight. I really like all the players too, but I'm looking forward to hearing music other than that Oingo Boingo guy's.

Talk about re-writing the same piece over and over again. Oompah oompah...

[kroses98]

It may be a well made movie, but in our destructive world of today, and with the country we love being shattered to smithereens by a sociopathic president and his like-minded administration, do we really need to go to the movies to see this dark, dreary musical, where a barber slits the throats of his clients, and then grinds them into meat pies? I think not! There is enough darkness in our "real lives" right now. Whether it takes the place of only worrying about our financial security, or if we are already on the "bread lines," our economy is lagging. Our good jobs have been outsourced and insourced for years, and no one seems to care about that. The "Middle Class" is quickly disappearing in this country. Medical care is becoming a "luxury," to be had for only the very poor or the wealthy. That is not fair! We are not secure in our own homes any more. We don't know who is listening to our phone calls, and who is reading our e-mails. This is NOT the country of our youth!!! WHY would I want to go to the movies and see a barber slit a man's throat, and then eat him and grimly sing about it? I DO NOT! I want to go to the movies and see something HAPPY! I would like to see singing and dancing and merriment!!! Remember that Shirley Temple became popular during the Depression. So did the Busby Berkeley Musicals! They made people feel better. They took peoples' minds off their own troubles. That's what we need today, thanks to George W. Bush!!!