welcome, infidel!

I'm not much for musicals, really. I'd also never seen Sweeney Todd performed; all I knew of the story I'd gleaned from watching the previews for this movie. I did learn reading an early review that the story itself had been around since the mid-1800s -- so there is some history here as well. Johnny Depp is indisputably one of our generation's best actors, so I had to go see it.

First observation is that there is a lot of singing. This isn't a movie with songs in it, it's a bunch of songs that tell a story. I assume the structure of the film is very close to that of the musical.

There are bits of dark humor scattered throughout, enough to provoke chuckles from more literate members of the audience. Mostly though, there are songs about madness and revenge and thwarted love... and razors. Johnny Depp in the present (though not in flashbacks) seems incapable of any kind of warmth towards anyone, but does gaze lovingly upon (and sing about) his collection of silver straight razors. It was touching, it was.

But soon enough he is using the razors and singing a bit less, cracking jokes about very close shaves -- and I'm not sure how he was paying his rent because he never did seem to collect very much money. He reaches a business arrangement with his downstairs neighbor, played by Helena Bonham Carter, to make use of his, er, former clients.

HBC is in typical form here, with very pale makeup and breasts bursting from some sort of corset, but whether it's because of the sets or the makeup or the general shadiness of her character, she isn't all that appealing. Mr. Todd does not seem very interested in her either, though she certainly is in him. He is interested only in revenge.

And right now you're wondering if I'll give the end of the movie away. No. But there were some twists toward the end I wasn't expecting, and the resolution is probably a nod to Shakespeare.

Overall a very, very dark movie which I don't think will do particularly well commercially. It's completely unsuitable for children (don't even think about it), a horrible date movie (almost certainly), not something teenagers will be interested in, and even something (thanks to the gratuitous throat-slashery) that will put off a lot of Johnny Depp fans. I'm a little unclear on how this got made, or secured the kind of budget that it clearly commanded.

But maybe they were just after Oscar nominations -- and I think it stands a good chance of landing a few of those.

I think if you read this review and think to yourself "wow I wonder if I should go see that", you probably should. Normal people (I am not one of them, sadly) can probably just rent this.