Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Year: 2007
Running time: 116 minutes
Certificate: 18
Language: English
Screenplay: John Logan
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Laura Michelle Kelly, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jayne Wisener

Double trouble.

The pairing of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, while not as critically acclaimed as that of Scorsese and De Niro, is certainly as prolific and probably more commercially successful. Their collaborations form some of the high points of both of their careers – Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow and others. Sweeney Todd is little more than an interesting misstep in the course of their long partnership.

Depp is well cast as the murderous Todd, arriving in London to wreak bloody vengeance on those who did him wrong in his past, back when he went by the name of Benjamin Barker. Chief among these is the corrupt Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), whose lust for Barker's wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly) leads to his conviction for a crime he didn't commit and exile. Fifteen years later, Barker returns under the name Sweeney Todd with revenge in his heart. Todd learns that Laura took her life following the abuse of the Judge and that Turpin has now made himself the tutor of their daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener).

Returning to his barbershop business as a cover for his murderous plans, Todd works with the thoroughly unpleasant Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bohnam Carter) to turn his victims into pies to sell in her shop. The pair develop a bustling business as Todd slices neck after neck all the while working towards Judge Turpin, the man who ruined his life. As you’d expect, just about everyone ends up killed in one ghastly fashion or another, with the Judge's end particularly grim thanks to a sickening crack accompanying his head banging off the floor on his way down to become pies. There is nothing redeemable about these characters and so there is little in the way of interest in their fates, with Burton seemingly only interested in how ugly he can make the story.

Vengeance is near.

The gory subject matter might feel at odds with the musical element, but the songs, taken from Stephen Sondheim's 1979 musical, are probably the most engaging part of the film, long considered stage-musical royalty and the cast pull them off nicely.

I don’t mind violence in films, but the endless amount of blood, of horrid characters with no redeeming features and no sign of anything to lighten the mood in the entire running time, it is too relentlessly grim for me and left me with a bit of a queasy feeling.

It's clearly well put together and made with talent, but it’s certainly not something I would feel like watching again. Nothing special.

Score: 5/10

There's clearly something I'm missing about Burton's bloody vision if these reviews by Pete at Rolling Stone and Kim at Empire are anything to go by, but I'm fine with not going back to see if I can find it.