Sweeny Todd Movie Review and Analysis

February 24, 2008

I may have mentioned a few hundred times or that I’m slightly obsessed with musicals. Well, I finally got round to watching Sweeny Todd the other night and it completely blew me away! I had no idea that it was going to be a full musical, I thought there might be a few songs dotted about here and there and the rest would be dialogue but in reality it was full of music and quality music at that!

As ever Johnny Depp stole the show as Sweeny Todd/Benjamin Barker a man who has resorted to desperate measures for revenge after losing his wife and daughter to the town Judge (Played by Alan Rickman). After setting up his barber shop above Mrs Lovett’s (Helena Bonham Carter) pie shop he soon realises that the woman is as unstable as him and the two form an ingenious yet sickening plan to get rid of Todd’s unsuspecting victims. Mrs Lovett minces the bodies and adds them to her pie’s which soon become a roaring success around London, but not without attracting the suspicion of a few select people in the process.

Once again Tim Burton has come up trumps with a fantastic, dark and disturbing movie made somewhat light hearted in places with the brilliant soundtrack full of songs that you will still be humming after the movie finishes. Does anyone have any personal favourite songs by the way? I have to confess, I loved them all and will probably buy the soundtrack but two that stood out for me were ‘Joanna’ and ‘Pretty Girls’ the duet between Johnny and Alan who had an almost instant on screen chemistry. As fans of both these talented actors it was a real treat to see them performing together and seemingly feeding off of each others energy.

I did read a while back that Tim Burton didn’t let Helena Bonham Carter off lightly when it came to rehearsing for the movie, and she even had to have a proper interview to check that her vocal skills were up to scratch. I adore this couple; they must be one of the kookiest in the entertainment industry closely followed by Marilyn Manson I would imagine.

A lot of my friends managed to see this movie before me and I was bombarded with reports of how gory this film was and how they were hiding their eyes whilst watching it. Now either I have become completely desensitised to horror and gore these days after watching so many movies or it wasn’t in actual fact that bad? Sure, it had its moments where it was violent and a little gory but I didn’t find myself scared to watch at any point, in fact I found the whole film completely compelling and was sad to see the final credits roll.

If you enjoy musicals and are a Tim Burton fan then it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll love this film. Packed with some great British actors it really steps up to the mark, and with a great appearance from Sacha Baron Cohen as Sweeny Todd’s first victim I simply cant fault this film in any way. Watch it!!

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