Movie Review; Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Director: Tim Burton

Actors: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall...

Verdict: A charming children's story with enough wit and depth of thematic material to appeal to adult audiences as well.

MPAA rating: R

reasons for R rating:
-Johnny Depp's and Helena Bonham Carter's makeup jobs are rather morbid
-Alan Rickman proposes to marry Jayne Wisener, despite the fact that he is at least 30 years her senior
-Johnny Depp's brooding tendency promotes antisocial behavior
-bad family values: promotes vengeance instead of forgiveness

Premise:
Based on a hit Broadway performance, Benjamin Barker returns to his hometown of London after spending years away at sea following the corrupt Judge Turpin's subduing of his would-be wife, and takes up the name of Sweeney Todd and occupies a barber shop above Ms. Lovett's Meat Pie Shop. Here he waits for his chance to strike vengeance upon the judge, all while slitting a few throats in the process.

Thoughts:
None can combine the charm of a witty, fanciful, musically driven fantasy with the morose like Tim Burton. One must always admire how such a director has the power to transform such a morose subject as cannibalism into such sing-songy expression. Although there are hints of a "darker side" residing beneath the surface, Depp's graceful enactment of his tragic character certainly provide quality inspiration for audiences of all ages, teaching the power of song and innovation (e.g. Ms. Lovett using next-door neighbors instead of cats and dogs for her meat pies) to overcome oppression and adversity.

I was slightly more disappointed my Jayne Wisener, on the other hand, both morally and pertaining to performance. I was especially disturbed by her acceptance of being locked up in her room, and accepting Alan Rickman abusing and taking advantage of her. Definitely negative points on playing the helpless-damsel-victim-in-distress-who-allows-her-ward-to-propose-marriage-without-putting-up -a fight. Wisener has proven her ability to perfect this character type, but where is the lesson, so needed in our contemporary era, of escape and throwing off the yoke-of-oppression-of-that-old-guy-that-wants-to-marry-you. That is certainly an underplayed archetypal plot motif that I think we need to see more. Although playing off a slightly different plot motif, I think Summer Glau exemplifies this perfectly:
I think this type of escape motif would have added much to this particular portion of the film, although this doesn't serve as a detriment to the rest of the film's subtle beauties.



On the more negative side, I found the cutting of throats a bit distracting. What I found most disturbing was the lack of physiological accuracy accompanying such an event. Whereas in the film, Sweeney Todd would slide his razor forcefully into the throat of the victim and a fountain of blood would spurt out, if one's throat were really cut, it would rush out, but certainly not in some gruesome explosion, and it would do so in rhythmic spurts each the heart compressed to expel the blood from within throughout the body. I was simply not convinced, nor do I think that the families gathering around the TV for this movie would want to waste precious together time upset by poor representations of human physiology.