Unconventional thriller

Sweeney Todd is a musical thriller based on the legendary barber of Fleet Street who was plunged into the life of a serial killer and subsequently sold his victims to a bakery which in turn quite revoltingly made meat pies out of them. The 2007 Oscar winning movie follows the same plot lines as the Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's stage musical.

So who would you have directing a warped story such as this one? Tim Burton's on the case. Burton thrives on unconventional retellings of children's stories or just unconventional stories as seen in his numerous collaborations in particular with Depp and Carter before this one. Burton's dark gothic style of filming was only too obvious in this musical and suited the story quite fittingly. Portraying London in quite a dark and beaten up rat hole in which the sun never shines and the streets are damp and infested with vermin. You could literally say that the movie doesn't see the light of day. Yes its typical Burton.

It seems everything Johnny Depp touches these days turns to gold and this film is none the different. In his sixth collaboration with Burton he quite expectedly lands the part of the lead role and quite obviously nails it. Receiving a Golden Globe and a Oscar nomination for his performance, Depp portrays the murderous barber with all the mystery, blood-lust and the deep sorrow with brilliant efficacy and is once again one of my favourite performances of 2007. His performance is of such class that I'm willing to recommend the movie simply on his performance. I am usually against collaborations between spouses. It didn't work for Kidman and Cruise and it certainly didn't work for the god awful Benifer movie, Gigli. Still, it seems to be working for Burton and wife, Carter who has worked in every Burton movie since they first hooked up in 2001 (Planet of the Apes, I believe).

Carter is a natural weirdo and plays Mrs. Lovett almost perfectly. Depicting the simple lust and almost obsessive fascination with Todd, Mrs. Lovett becomes the true maniac in the movie, for me at least, simply because she makes meat pies out of the baked flesh of Todd's victims and sells them to unsuspecting customers, simply because she feels it a waste to dispose of so much of meat. Err... ok? They truly are the worst pies in London.

Alan Rickman? Let me first get this out of the way. He plays Snape in Harry Potter and I don't think the Potter movies are worth the penny in my pocket. Still, Rickman's performance is solid and more than adequate to his character. The only flaw in the character was that he became inexplicable. He rapes Todd's wife but wants to save her daughter from the evils of the world. He might have actually worked a little better as a two dimensional and simplified villain. We have all the character development we need in the serial killing protagonist and the deranged baker.

I haven't been the biggest fan of musicals in the past and I only really loved a few including Moulin Rouge (I had to say it). This is simply because I get irritated when the movie is just plastered with unknown songs. This is the reason I hated Dreamgirls with such conviction and skipped though half the movie. However, the score and lyrics in this musical were more than tolerable to me. As most of it was musical dialogue it was easier to follow and was not boring at all. The subtle dark humour and some of the songs sung by the characters gave the movie more than enough to keep me satisfied throughout the two hours.

The movie got sufficient Oscar love at the 80th, winning one and nominated for another three. With the listed movies being far from fit for nominations this year, I was surprised Sweeny Todd didn't do any better.

Cast: Johnny Depp,
Helena Bonham Carter,
Alan Rickman,
Timothy Spall,
Sacha Baron Cohen
Director: Tim Burton
Running Time: 116 mins