As we were leaving a Friday night screening of Tim Burton’s latest exercise in fantastic fantasy excess (not to mention his first musical), a 19 year old girl screamed at her 19 year old date who was obviously trying to hug her and calm her down:
“Don’t Touch Me!”.
Which basically explains how unprepared most audiences (And dates) may be when entering the Sweeney Todd cinematic world.
On paper, this has all the makings of a holiday treat FOR ALL THE FAMILY.
Tim Burton brought us, well, you know, everything from “Beetlejuice” to “Sleepy Hollow” to “Edward Scissorhands” and my favorite “Ed Wood”, and while dark, sure, his works have always somehow happily found their ways into the hearts of all of audiences.
Stephen Sondheim is as close to musical theater genius as musical theater gets. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum”, “Follies”, “Little Night Music”…all send high school drama clubs into an unparalled tizzy (see “Camp” for further references).
And while “Sweeney Todd” granted, is dark original material, it WAS A HIT musical, and has been pop-culturally referenced by everyone from Kevin Smith (in the much maligned “Jersey girl” in case you were wondering) to your gay best friend in college.
(I could now dismiss the movie on the basis of my feelings for “edgy” musicals but I am not, I promise, as the singing is actually utilized as a tool not as a crutch here)
Plus, Johnny Depp is in it.
And one of the urban facts of life is: if you take a girl to see a Johnny Depp movie, that girl, overwhelmed by the unstoppable hotness of Johhny, will definitely, MOST DEFINITELY, succumb and at the very least, make out with you.
Well, no such luck here.
There is blood, gore, no sympathetic characters to speak of, and a bleak landscape of London that looks positively Dickensian (Coleen Atwood’s reliably amazing costumes help round it all out), for starters.
Yes sure, Sweeney Todd was wronged once, and now he is out for revenge (you almost feel like rooting for him initially) but pretty soon, you realize that your “hero” is well, the very antithesis of that, and that the “villains” are almost too small of a fish to fry. Or bake.
If we were to compare this level of brutality to anything seen on celluloid lately, Christian Bale in “American Psycho” is probably the only character that can compete.
Plus, he does it to music too.
Johnny (in full Susan Sontag white skunk tail in hair mode and singing in an oddly like Bowie voice) and Helena Bonham Carter (all corseted and doll like even at 40, who is, probably, the closest the modern world has to a movie muse, first for Kenneth Brannagh and now for Tim) chew some scenery (and people around), Sascha Baron Cohen and Alan Rickman (both terrific) chew whatever is left of said scenery (before they themselves get chewed) and the youth and innocence ends up repeatedly being beaten, sent to asylums and made to work for cannibal pie makers.
Something is rotten in the city of London and it isn’t the teeth. (though they are pretty rotten too)
And when I said there is blood, there is actually no way of exactly BEGINNING TO EVEN SAY HOW MUCH BLOOD THERE IS.
(our faces were covered most of the time, and still we felt that there was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more blood than during those infamous “black and white outed” scenes in “Kill Bill”)
Which is not to say its a bad movie.
It is just a….shocking movie. And people don’t get shocked so easily these days, so that is saying something.
(not quite sure what yet, but every day I still think about it a little, which is ALSO saying something)
If there is a movie that will give you nightmares this Holiday season, look no further.
If you’re looking to score with your 19-year-old date, look as far away as possible.
I think it’s hilarious that hordes (by which I mean millions) of teenaged girls are going to want to see this movie because of Johnny Depp and then be as horrified as you.
Because I like it when people have blinders removed.
Like when young’uns try desperately to get backstage to see their favorite singer or guitar player, or drummer, thinking they’ll fall in love, and then are faced with the down-to-earth realization that what Mr. Drummer actually wants is anal on the tour bus.
December 26, 2007 at 5:39 pmSaw and Hostel aside, this movie may be the best modern interpretation of “grand guignol.” Defined, in part, on Wikipedia as the following: The plays were in a variety of styles, but the most popular and best-known were the horror plays, featuring a distinctly bleak worldview as well as particularly gory special effects in their notoriously bloody climaxes.
I’m not a musical fan. I am a cautious Tim Burton fan. I missed out on “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory” and “Big Fish” but I’ve seen most of his films. I say cautious because every Tim Burton film generally amounts to little more than just that: a Tim Burton film. His style over substance style is both the reason that his fans love him and the reason detractors don’t.
It’s funny, later in the week I’m going to see “There Will be Blood” but I feel like that title was used on the wrong movie.
December 26, 2007 at 7:40 pmnah, at almost 45 he is too old for teenage girls.
December 26, 2007 at 10:07 pmReg: Read my review on There Will Be Blood. The title is perfect.
December 26, 2007 at 11:20 pmThe movie is actually called “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” not “Something Funny Happened to Me on the Way to the Forum.” I’d be interested to see if Rob Marshall’s film version of Follies actually comes to pass. I think Passion could also make an interesting movie.
December 27, 2007 at 12:50 pm
There is something about horror-musicals that is particularly creepy. The Happiness of the Katakuris is another example.
December 26, 2007 at 4:32 pm