Only director Tim Burton could have got a film like Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street green light at a major studio. Sure the story of a vengeful barber who seeks revenge on those that killed his wife and imprisoned his daughter is quite compelling...but the fact the dead bodies end up in the pie shop downstairs is rather disturbing, the geysers of spurting blood requiring a hard R rating off-putting and the fact it's a bloody musical make the fact it was made at all a miracle.
As you'd expect from Burton it's a dark, twisted tale filled with eccentric characters, played by brilliant actors (Rickman, Bonham Carter, Spall, Baron Cohen) all topped of with another oddball performance from Depp singing as if he'd been possess by the spirit of David Bowie. As it plays here the story is fine and well told but the musical aspect falls a little flat due to songs that don't linger long in the memory. Still it's so original and bizarre it has to be commended for that.
You've got to feel sorry for the general audience members that were enticed to see Burton and Depp's latest collaboration by trailers omitting the fact that it was a full blown musical...the number of walk outs and audible groans coming from packed movie theatres back in 2007 must have been considerable. But hey, it's their loss.
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