Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
As per typical of Tim Burton, this film is a visual triumph, succeeding incredibly well in art direction, costumes, cinematography and makeup. The German Expressionism influences are obvious and that's what makes this film even more fun, as it's a German Expressionist film set to music. Having never heard much of Stephen Sondheim's work, I didn't know what to expect from the songs, but I must say I was impressed. Some memorable tunes and funny lyrics add to the fun of the film, particularly when Helena Bonham Carter sings them.Regarding the actors, Johnny Depp is very good, although I did catch a hint of Jack Sparrow sometimes. He's a decent singer too, but nothing extraordinary. Helena Bonham Carter was my favourite in the cast, playing her character incredibly. She's a tragic figure, who you can't help but sympathise for and Carter's performance adds to this. She's a great singer as well. Alan Rickman, as usual, is fantastic despite nothing having that much screen time. He has a fairly good singing voice, too. Timothy Spall and Sacha Baron Cohen provide plenty of dark comic relief in their parts, too. I didn't particularly care for the two actors playing Joanna and Anthony, though. Despite good singing, I found them rather uninteresting.
The film gets off to a slow start, but once the killings start (and boy does Burton do a great job with those), it gets more exciting. Those two hours passed by very quickly. My favourite musical of the year (but I still need to see Across the Universe).
