Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007)

Even a bad Tim Burton film holds more creative vision than the majority of high-budget Hollywood-made films and the director's latest effort, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street ranks among his best. A visionary in every sense of the word, Burton achieves new heights visually, using his dark brush to paint the streets of London as foreboding and otherworldly. The film is indeed a musical (judging by the handful of early exits from the theater, it seems that not everyone was aware of this) and the cast performs admirably. While I've read some reviews criticizing Johnny Depp's voice, I thought the accomplished actor was solid both vocally and in inhabiting the role. Helena Bonham Carter turns in a particularly memorable performance as Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney's loyal sidekick and the owner of a, ahem, "special" Meat Pie Shop below his barber shop. A stage-to-screen translation, the film adapts a Stephen Sondheim musical thriller that finds its roots in a mid-19th century gothic tale about a barber/serial-killer named Sweeney Todd, aka Benjamin Barker. While there is an overabundance of gore in the film, all of the violence is highly stylized, and blood spray occurs at a cartoonish rate. That's not to say that Burton's dark vision isn't effectively disturbing. Critics are calling the film impersonal and cold, which seems deliberate to me considering the main character is someone who has lost all faith in mankind, so much so that he holds no value in human life and has no problem taking it. While there is enough twisted humor to provide some much-needed laughter, the film maintains an overwhelmingly macabre mood. The film is a real treat for Burton fans and for those who can stomach its dark content. -- Capt. Obvious

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