Cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall
Cinema is littered with the proof that it’s very difficult to make a stage musical into a convincing and enjoyable film, but Burton’s Sweeney Todd is a happy exception.This is due in part to the film’s very satisfying plot, whose dark and macabre elements are the perfect occasion for Burton’s aesthetics. This includes, of course, an unfathomable quantity of claret, as the eponymous barber (Depp) slits his customers’ throats and passes their corpses on to his landlady (Bonham-Carter) for pie-filling.
There are also plenty of mouth-curling moments, arising from both the clever lyrics and the peerless timing of Depp and Bonham-Carter. These two lead a very solid cast, but it seems a bit strange at times when the professional thesps are upstaged by the unknowns who can actually sing. It might have been better to get actors rather than singers for these parts, too.
Obviously, this is not a film for the squeamish, but if you know and love the Burton canon, you’re in for a bloody, meaty treat.
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