Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 2007
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ★★ 2007 (R)
Some critics seemed to think that this adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical was too gory. Well, it's true, it's a lot harder to deal with buckets of blood onstage than in the movies, and Burton does seem to revel in his subject matter, which happens to be a singing, throat-slitting serial killer whose victims get turned into meat pies in dank, 19th-century London. A real toe-tapper that is. Sweeney (Depp) was unfairly transported to Australia when corrupt judge Turpin (Rickman) coveted his wife and daughter. Now years later, barber Sweeney has returned (unrecognizable) to exact his revenge, partnered in crime by his equally corpse-like (and ever-loving) landlady Mrs. Lovett (Bonham Carter). Not a direct adaptation (Burton omits and abridges songs and does some reshaping) and neither Depp nor Bonham Carter are singers, but you have to admire the sheer chutzpah. 117m/C DVD . US Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jayne Wisner, Jamie Campbell Bower, Edward Sanders; D: Tim Burton; W: John Logan; C: Darius Wolski; M: Stephen Sondheim. Oscars ‘07: Art Dir./Set Dec.; Golden Globes ‘08: Actor—Mus./Comedy (Depp), Film—Mus./Comedy.