| SWEENEY TODD - THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (2007) : T.Burton : 5/10 |
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| Monday, 21 January 2008 | |
 The barber himself was a long, low-jointed, ill-put-together sort of fellow, with an immense mouth, and such huge hands and feet, that he was, in his way, quite a natural curiosity; and, what was more wonderful, considering his trade, there never was seen such a head of hair as Sweeney Todd's. We know not what to compare it to: probably it came nearest to what one might suppose to be the appearance of a thickset hedge, in which a quantity of small wire had got entangled. In truth, it was a most terrific head of hair; and as Sweeney Todd kept all his combs in it - some said his scissors likewise - when he put his head out of the shop-door to see what sort of weather it was, he might have been mistaken for some Indian warrior with a very remarkable head-dress. Edward Lloyd, The String of Pearls, 1846 Hmmm... Seems like my spell of "getting" Tim Burton was somewhat brief. For years I thought that his films tended to be much better in prospect than in reality, and, though pleasantly surprised by Planet of the Apes, could never quite see what all the fuss was about. Until, that is, Burton's next remake after Apes: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where his self-consciously outre sensibility meshed so hilariously with Roald Dahl's. Sweeney Todd isn't, technically, a remake: there have been films made on this subject for both big screen and small, most notably Tod Slaughter's barnstormingly unbridled interpretation of the role in George King's 68-minute quickie from 1936. This megabucks Hollywood version is instead adapted from the 1979 highly-regarded musical-theatre version by Hugh Wheeler (story) and Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics), itself based on a 1973 play by Christopher Bond: rather a complicated historical genesis, by any standards. In terms of plot, it's easy to see how King and Slaughter were able to rattle through their version in just over an hour: a misanthropic, vengeance-crazed barber, Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) slits the throats of many of his customers, though his real target is the villainous judge (Alan Rickman) who shattered his idyllic family-life and drove him into a 15-year exile. The corpses are disposed of by Todd's partner-in-crime Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who is delighted to find a supply of fresh meat for her pie shop. It's a lurid tale, but not exactly plot-heavy: John Logan's script - by all accounts largely faithful to the stage version - pads proceedings out with the sappy romance between Todd's young friend Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower) and his teenage daughter Johanna (anime-eyed Jayne Wisener), plus all manner of repetitive business in which Todd glowers, broods, and declaims about his misanthropy and motivation. What really stops Burton from building momentum, however, is the songs. Devotees of Sondheim and/or musical theatre in general may well be in clover. The rest of us are sitting there wishing the picture would just get on with it. What do the songs add? Take them away, and let Logan and Burton really explore the story and the characters, and surely everyone would benefit. What we have here is a case of a work which functions brilliantly in one medium being transposed to another - with stilted, awkward results, no matter how elaborate the stygian production-design. Depp (who cut rather more hair as Edward Scissorhands than he manages here), Bonham Carter and Rickman are all perfectly fine within the limitations of the material - only Timothy Spall, as Judge Turpin's pompous/obsequious henchman Beadle Bamford, manages to transcend them. Looking as if he's waddled in out of a Hogarth print (or worse), Spall is superbly, oleaginously repellent, exuding moral corruption and turning each of Bamford's lines into a mini-masterclass of comic timing. If everything in the picture operated at Spall's level then Sweeney Todd would be the crowning masterpiece of Burton's haphazard career: as it is, his barber saga yields, disappointingly, only "fringe" benefits. Neil Young 23.Jan.08 -------------------------------------------------------------------- USA (US/UK) 116m (BBFC timing) director : Tim Burton (Corpse Bride [co-director], Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, etc) editor : Chris Lebenzon (Eragon, Deja Vu, Corpse Bride, etc) seen 20.Jan.08 Sunderland (Empire Cinema preview : £5.80) |
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