Tim Burton’s adaptation of SWEENEY TODD presented me with a most curious paradox. As an adaptation of the Sweeney Todd story it would compare more than favorably with the other modern versions that featured Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, and Freddie Jones while easily surpassing the famous Tod Slaughter version which, aside from him, really isn’t very good. In fact, it’s easily the best version of the story that I have ever seen. The production values especially the visuals are sumptuous and the performances, most notably Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs Lovett, are first rate. The problem for me, and it’s a huge one, is that this isn’t a straightforward telling of the story but a reworking of the Stephen Sondheim musical and in that regard it was a very unsatisfactory adaptation. This leaves me with very mixed feelings regarding the whole enterprise.
I hadn’t seen the film since it first came out and I was very disappointed with it then. The recent death of Alan Rickman spurred me on to watch it again and this time around I enjoyed it even less. There are two serious flaws the most egregious being that most of the cast can’t sing. You know you’re in trouble when Sacha Baron Cohen, as the barber Pirelli, has the best voice. Why bother with the music when most of the cast can’t carry a tune? Why bother with the music when you’re planning to do away with over half of the score including one of the signature tunes “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd”?. It’s like doing CABARET without “Willkommen”. I just don’t understand it. There are always changes made between the film and stage versions of hit musicals (the recent films of LES MISERABLES and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA are prime examples) but the gulf between this adaptation and the original is the widest that I have ever seen.
Some changes, such as the downgrading of Johanna’s character and the virtual elimination of the beggar woman who looms so large in the denouement of the original, are puzzling in the extreme. Then there is an overall edge of cruelty to the proceedings which undercuts the dark comedy and any sympathy that one might feel for Sweeney and some of the other characters. Helena Bonham Carter does manage to make Mrs Lovett sad and sympathetic which makes the brutal depiction of her fate especially hard to take. In fact all of the killings out grand guignol Grand Guignol and that coupled with the overly stylized visuals (think Edward Gorey on hallucinogens) made sitting through this an unpleasant experience. If they had just left the music out of it, this could have been a SWEENEY TODD for the ages. I’m glad that Stephen Sondheim was so happy with it. I truly wish that I could say the same.
The Capsule Critic 