I saw "Sweeney Todd" today. This now takes the place of "Ed Wood," which was previously my favorite Tim Burton film.
Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp), a once-prosperous barber, has his life destroyed when a cruel judge (Alan Rickman) steals Barker's wife and baby daughter, and has Barker wrongfully imprisoned.
Years later, Barker returns to his old stomping grounds, now under the name Sweeney Todd. He resumes practice in his old shop, above Mrs. Lovett's (Helena Bonham Carter) meat pie shop. When Todd learns his now-grown daughter Johanna is the ward of the judge, he seeks vengeance. As Todd descends deeper into madness, various city folk disappear, and soon, Mrs. Lovett, who once was known for "the worst pies in London," finds business booming with satisfied customers, as her pies now contain a different kind of meat.
This is a faithful, entertaining adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical, based on the play by Christopher Bond. The supporting cast includes Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat") as Pirelli, a flamboyant Italian barber with a secret, and Timothy Spall as the Beadle, the judge's right-hand man.
The film has a suitably grimy, grim look. Vintage Burton. And the director exercises the grand guignol aspects of the musical to the hilt. This film is not for the squeamish, and bravo to DreamWorks, Warner Bros. and producer Richard Zanuck for allowing Burton to go as far as he does without restraining him, or forcing him to cut things down for a PG-13. There is some pretty gruesome stuff in this one. Burton's not afraid to let the Hawaiian Punch flow!
This may seem very unusual holiday fare, but it is definitely something different. "Sweeney Todd" is a visual feast, and, despite its grim storyline, manages to have a black, twisted sense of humor.