Sweeney Todd
I read the script for Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street back in my high-school theater arts class, which would have been ‘83 or ‘84. And now I’ve just seen the 2007 movie. I liked it. Which is disappointing. I should have loved it.
I mean, what’s not to love? Serial killers. Cannibalism. A broody man harboring a self-destructive obsession. Singing and dancing. 19th-century London costumes and settings. Johnny Depp. Alan Rickman. Straight razors. Gouts of blood. What more could I possibly ask?
Well, okay, Keanu Reaves instead of Jaime Campbell Bower. But let’s not get greedy.
I think the reason I didn’t love the movie was because the songs aren’t very impressive, especially Todd’s. “Pretty Women” and “Green Finch and Linnet” are the best pieces, and “By the Sea” is most memorable for the visuals (thank you, Tim, for despondent Depp in a turn-of-the-century striped swimsuit — I won’t forget that image for a long time). It took me about 15 or 20 minutes to start to warm up to the movie — about the time we start to get into Mrs. Lovett’s and Sweeney Todd’s disparately psycho personalities. Mmm. Okay. About the time Todd starts getting really obsessive. Did I mention how much I enjoy a broody man harboring a self-destructive obsession?
And Depp was still using his Jack Sparrow voice, which was occasionally disconcerting.
So, I liked the movie, but while I snapped up the DVD version of Phantom of the Opera (despite its less-than-Crawford Phantom) and Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet — did I mention I enjoy a broody man harboring a …? — I doubt I’ll add Sweeney Todd to my very limited collection of keeper movies. Rather have Depp in From Hell, I think.
drupagliassotti @ April 2, 2008