Director: Tim Burton
Top stars: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman
Running time: 116 minutes
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the celluloid version of Steven Sondheim’s hit Broadway musical of the same name. The title character (Johnny Depp), previously known as Benjamin Barker, returns to the ‘hole in the world’, London, with the intention of murdering his wife’s abductor (Alan Rickman). Meanwhile, Sweeney Todd also forms a foul alliance with his tenant Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter).
The Tim Burton-Johnny Depp-Helena Bonham Carter formula, at the very first thought, obviously suggests a masterpiece. The film being butterscotch (the worst Ice Cream flavoured rating that I dish out) is out of the question.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a film that left me feeling aghast and perplexed that I had flinched and shut my eyes so often, but yet absolutely loved it. It is a perfectly perfect horror film while also being the ideal musical. Dialogues seem to be the condiments of this film, while the sumptuous base is provided by the music numbers, the magnificient sets and the background score.
When you’re used to Indian cinema, it is very easy to forget that the songs in a Hollywood musical are sung by the actual actors themselves. Johnny Depp, who has never sung before, once again proves why he is the king of the seas, the chocolate factory and fleet street. What else has that man got under his sleeve?! Bonham Carter, as always, is simply brilliant in the role of the longing, manipulative and heinous Nellie Lovett. The most memorable voice of the film was, for me, Jayne Wisener’s as she sang ‘Green Finch and Linnet Bird’. Absolutely heart stopping. Pity she had only one song.
There is one word that describes Sweeney Todd perfectly - Poshlust (Russian). Legendary novelist Nabokov defines ‘Poshlust’ as ‘the falsely beautiful, the falsely clever, the falsely attractive’. This film is the epitome of ‘poshlust’.
At first glance, it is a bewitching tale about love with alluring strains and tunes. But as it unravels, it reveals itself to be dark, angry and corrupt; a story of matter-of-fact murder, selfish deception and cannibalism with a disturbingly tragic climax. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street might give you nightmares and spoil a few naps. But watch it for the amalgam of musical, acting and directing genius that it proves to be.
More on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Christian Spotlight, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert, Metacritic, Wikipedia
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