Well, I was going to do a review of Burton's film adaptation of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street but, what with the busy and the exhausted, Karen beat me to it and since her opinion is almost exactly mine, why re-iterate?
I would add that I was disappointed in Depp's performance of all of Todd's musical numbers except 'Johanna' and 'Pretty Women', which were mournfully moving and sweetly ironic respectively. He almost managed 'No Place Like London' but since half of it was cut out he didn't have to emote quite as much as he otherwise would have. And this is where he feel down for me: when the music and lyrics demanded anger or despair or true passion, he held back. He stopped. He was... too controlled. And it made me realise what a controlled actor he is, in so many way. Extraordinarily talented but very definitely in control when he performs and Todd is a role where he needed to let go, to feel Todd's pain and anger and despair. 'Epiphany' was the worst offender for this: where George Hearn screams out
The treatment of the more farcical elements of the play bothered me also. Burton seemed to remove them from places they needed to be and were originally in favour of adding them at places that downplayed the most powerful and poignant moments, like Lovett's immediate undercutting of Todd's fury and impotence after 'Ephiphany' (which together with 'A Little Priest' was always my favourite part of the play.) Making Todd ridiculous in that moment removes the power of his reaction and why that choice was made.... It baffles me. The removal of 'Kiss Me' was a slight disappointment since it is a beautiful exposition of the characters of Johanna and Anthony and juxtaposing it against 'Ladies in Their Sensitivities' with the way the two come together in the quartet speaks so much to the very thing Todd rails against and at the same moment offers the play's ultimate solution. To remove it removes something integral to the play, much like the removal of the beggar woman offering herself to Anthony contrasted as it is with her soft cry for alms.
But I am now repeating Karen. For those who I haven't already mentioned it to, despite my disappointment in parts of the way it was translated to film, it's certainly worth seeing and I plan to watch it again. Burton obviously had a clear idea of what he wanted to do and, while it may not be as strong a musical as I would have liked, it's still a fine movie.
And if you can afford to see it gold class, I so thoroughly recommend doing so.
I would add that I was disappointed in Depp's performance of all of Todd's musical numbers except 'Johanna' and 'Pretty Women', which were mournfully moving and sweetly ironic respectively. He almost managed 'No Place Like London' but since half of it was cut out he didn't have to emote quite as much as he otherwise would have. And this is where he feel down for me: when the music and lyrics demanded anger or despair or true passion, he held back. He stopped. He was... too controlled. And it made me realise what a controlled actor he is, in so many way. Extraordinarily talented but very definitely in control when he performs and Todd is a role where he needed to let go, to feel Todd's pain and anger and despair. 'Epiphany' was the worst offender for this: where George Hearn screams out
Who, sir? You, sir?every word filled with Todd's outrage and despair, Depp barely managed a snarl. Part of this, I suspect is due to a strong reaction to Sondheim's concern about anyone making a film of any of his musicals and Burton over-compensating for that by being too purist over the music: not Depp nor Carter nor Rickman broke from the music at any point to state or screech or whisper when it would have enhanced the performance, something that the actors in the original Broadway production certainly felt no compunction about. For the most part, however, I found Carter's performance of Lovett exquisite, though darker than Angela Lansbury's, and Ed Sanders who played Toby was better, especially in his performance of 'Not While I'm Around'. Spall was much less of the fob but was delicious in his coarse vicious rendition of Beadle Bamford and Rickman's Judge Turpin was debauched and self-satisfied in all the right ways, though also wearier and more sympathetic than I was expecting.
No one's in the chair -
Come on, come on,
Sweeney's waiting!
I want you bleeders!
The treatment of the more farcical elements of the play bothered me also. Burton seemed to remove them from places they needed to be and were originally in favour of adding them at places that downplayed the most powerful and poignant moments, like Lovett's immediate undercutting of Todd's fury and impotence after 'Ephiphany' (which together with 'A Little Priest' was always my favourite part of the play.) Making Todd ridiculous in that moment removes the power of his reaction and why that choice was made.... It baffles me. The removal of 'Kiss Me' was a slight disappointment since it is a beautiful exposition of the characters of Johanna and Anthony and juxtaposing it against 'Ladies in Their Sensitivities' with the way the two come together in the quartet speaks so much to the very thing Todd rails against and at the same moment offers the play's ultimate solution. To remove it removes something integral to the play, much like the removal of the beggar woman offering herself to Anthony contrasted as it is with her soft cry for alms.
But I am now repeating Karen. For those who I haven't already mentioned it to, despite my disappointment in parts of the way it was translated to film, it's certainly worth seeing and I plan to watch it again. Burton obviously had a clear idea of what he wanted to do and, while it may not be as strong a musical as I would have liked, it's still a fine movie.
And if you can afford to see it gold class, I so thoroughly recommend doing so.
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Great minds think alike!
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