Close Shave
Monstrosity breeds monsters in Burton's sly, ghoulishly effective 'Sweeney Todd'

Tim  Burton and Stephen Sondheim: not two people you normally think of in the same sentence. But the neo-Gothic filmmaker turns out to be a surprisingly effective match for the Broadway maestro in this adaptation of Sweeney Todd; The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, one of Sondheim's most controversial (and popular) stage musicals.

Yes, musical. But don't worry: this is no sunny Singin' In The Rain, nor razzle-dazzle Chicago. Based on a mid-Victorian melodrama, the plot concerns a homicidal London barber who slits his victims' throats, and his unholy pact with his harridan landlady, who bakes the evidence into meat pies. And they sing while doing it, with some of Sondheim's wittiest, most sophisticated, and ghoulishly tasty lyrics. Based on an adaptation of the story by Christopher Bond, Burton and screenwriter John Logan also deepen the material with a backstory about a horrible injustice done to Sweeney as a young man, and his desire for vengeance that becomes all-consuming.

Burton casts frequent co-conspirator Johnny Depp as Sweeney. He may not have the biggest singing voice in the movies, but Depp packs nuance and feeling into every note, attacking the music with relish and clarity, putting over every aspect of the character's anguish, irony, and menace. Even in his Bride of Frankenstein 'do, he's the tragic heart of the story. Helena Bonham Carter is riotous and strangely poignant as the pie-baking Mrs. Lovett, whose unrequited love for the oblivious Sweeney adds another layer to the drama.

With the stars' grotesque make-up, a story told almost entirely in song, brooding, industrial landscapes, and bizarre fantasy sequences, the movie has Burton's patented Grand Guignol look. There's only one difference: everything is artificial but the violence. Blows are savage. Blood spills suddenly, deeply; there's nothing arty or stylized about it. It sickens us, and it's supposed to. In the midst of such grandly envisioned artifice, just when we think we're in for something merrily macabre,  Burton restores a sense of genuine horror to movie violence. It's a risky concept and a virtuoso, um, execution. For all the perverse humor, it's a cautionary tale of how monstrosity breeds monsters, told with gripping conviction.

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
***1/2 (out of four)
With Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman. From the musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler. Written by John Logan. Directed by Tim Burton. A Paramount release. Rated R. 117 minutes.