Movie Review: Sweeney Todd
So yesterday was a good day. Took the train into NYC, had lunch with Dave and Roxy. Dave gave me a cool Sweeney Todd poster, and the soundtrack, as well as Rufus Wainwright's new 2-disc "Rufus Does Judy At Carnegie Hall" live album, for Christmas. All unexpected and completely cool.
Then Dave and I went off to see Sweeney while Roxy when shopping. Because essentially, if a movie isn't light-hearted enough to have unicorns in it, Roxy will not see it. She's way too cute, that girl.
As for the movie:
I quite enjoyed it. Burton's filmmaking sensibility is just what the story needed for film. Anything more "realistic" or less "heightened" would have worked against the story. What works for a stage musical will not necessarily work on film, as we know. (Rob Marshall managed to make "Chicago" work by placing all of the musical numbers in the characters' minds, for instance.) Gone are the days, I think, of a straightforward movie musical; if you're going to do one these days, there needs to be some kind of gimmick that let's the audience know you as a filmmaker are aware that people don't just walk around bursting into song in everyday life.
Much has been made of how much of the stage music was cut for the movie. I have to say this: as aware as I was of the fact that cuts were made, the only song I really missed was the titular "Ballad of Sweeney Todd." However, I agree with Sondheim's and Burton's decision not to use it over the opening credits (the overture worked much better with those visuals) or to have a chorus of Todd's victims sing it somewhere within the movie (I think that kind of Greek Chorus works well on stage, but would not have worked in the reality of the movie). I do wish they had recorded it to play over the closing credits, though. I think that would have been a nice touch. After the movie, Dave and I were trying to recall what might have been cut, and the best we could come up with were comments like "wasn't City on Fire a longer piece in the play? And the Beadle's song? And didn't Turpin have a song to himself?" The point being: what they left in was perfectly suited to the flow of the movie.
I thought Johnny Depp was a great Todd, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall were perfectly lecherous as Turpin and Bamford, Helena Bonham Carter was in full "drugged out Goth mode" as Mrs Lovett for most of the movie, which seemed to work for her, and the kid who played Toby was terrific. Sascha Baron Cohen provided great comic relief in his short scenes as Pirelli, and James Campbell Brower was a fine Anthony Hope (one of the slightest of the main roles, IMHO, so there wasn't much for him to do with the part). I thought the girl who played Johanna had a pretty voice but was a bit awkward looking. Oh, and the woman who played Lucy / The Beggar Woman did an nice job as well, especially with the incredibly awkward "City on Fire," which is not one of my favorite songs.
Stand-out musical numbers: "A Little Priest" was the highlight. It's one of my three favorite numbers from the show anyway, and the staging of it here (Todd and Mrs. Lovett look out the shop windows and discuss what each of the people they see would be like as meat pies) worked very well, a moment of total humorous abandon for two people to whom laughter does not come easy. "Not While I'm Around" is one of Sondheim's best evocations of devotion and the kid who played Toby really nailed the emotion of it. And the Depp-Rickman duet on "Pretty Women" was very well done despite the limited physical space they had to work with (when one half of the duet is in a barber's chair, lathered up, and the other half is shaving him, there's not a lot of interesting choreography that can be done).
Overall, a very enjoyable movie. If we had one quibble (and Dave and I agreed on this), it's that the ending seemed rushed. The movie was paced fine until the last 15 minutes or so, and then things just seemed to fly by. The play also builds to that crescendo, but it seems like it builds a little bit slower.
Highly recommended.
Then Dave and I went off to see Sweeney while Roxy when shopping. Because essentially, if a movie isn't light-hearted enough to have unicorns in it, Roxy will not see it. She's way too cute, that girl.
As for the movie:
I quite enjoyed it. Burton's filmmaking sensibility is just what the story needed for film. Anything more "realistic" or less "heightened" would have worked against the story. What works for a stage musical will not necessarily work on film, as we know. (Rob Marshall managed to make "Chicago" work by placing all of the musical numbers in the characters' minds, for instance.) Gone are the days, I think, of a straightforward movie musical; if you're going to do one these days, there needs to be some kind of gimmick that let's the audience know you as a filmmaker are aware that people don't just walk around bursting into song in everyday life.
Much has been made of how much of the stage music was cut for the movie. I have to say this: as aware as I was of the fact that cuts were made, the only song I really missed was the titular "Ballad of Sweeney Todd." However, I agree with Sondheim's and Burton's decision not to use it over the opening credits (the overture worked much better with those visuals) or to have a chorus of Todd's victims sing it somewhere within the movie (I think that kind of Greek Chorus works well on stage, but would not have worked in the reality of the movie). I do wish they had recorded it to play over the closing credits, though. I think that would have been a nice touch. After the movie, Dave and I were trying to recall what might have been cut, and the best we could come up with were comments like "wasn't City on Fire a longer piece in the play? And the Beadle's song? And didn't Turpin have a song to himself?" The point being: what they left in was perfectly suited to the flow of the movie.
I thought Johnny Depp was a great Todd, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall were perfectly lecherous as Turpin and Bamford, Helena Bonham Carter was in full "drugged out Goth mode" as Mrs Lovett for most of the movie, which seemed to work for her, and the kid who played Toby was terrific. Sascha Baron Cohen provided great comic relief in his short scenes as Pirelli, and James Campbell Brower was a fine Anthony Hope (one of the slightest of the main roles, IMHO, so there wasn't much for him to do with the part). I thought the girl who played Johanna had a pretty voice but was a bit awkward looking. Oh, and the woman who played Lucy / The Beggar Woman did an nice job as well, especially with the incredibly awkward "City on Fire," which is not one of my favorite songs.
Stand-out musical numbers: "A Little Priest" was the highlight. It's one of my three favorite numbers from the show anyway, and the staging of it here (Todd and Mrs. Lovett look out the shop windows and discuss what each of the people they see would be like as meat pies) worked very well, a moment of total humorous abandon for two people to whom laughter does not come easy. "Not While I'm Around" is one of Sondheim's best evocations of devotion and the kid who played Toby really nailed the emotion of it. And the Depp-Rickman duet on "Pretty Women" was very well done despite the limited physical space they had to work with (when one half of the duet is in a barber's chair, lathered up, and the other half is shaving him, there's not a lot of interesting choreography that can be done).
Overall, a very enjoyable movie. If we had one quibble (and Dave and I agreed on this), it's that the ending seemed rushed. The movie was paced fine until the last 15 minutes or so, and then things just seemed to fly by. The play also builds to that crescendo, but it seems like it builds a little bit slower.
Highly recommended.