Skepse

Director: Tim Burton
Casting: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alarn Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, …
Rating :

At last I saw Sweeney Todd, the latest Tim Burton movie, which renew its cooperation with Johnny Depp in the lead character. And wow! was I taken aback… This is defintely a Burton movie, a dark gothic tale with a humorous extravagance, but this one goes much farther than its previous work. Sweeney Todd is rather darker than the usual Burton flick and also quite penetrated with grizzly violence, which explain its rating of R.

First, Sweeney Todd has been around for quite some time. Inspired by some real-life events in 18th century France and/or England (sources disagree), the character of Sweeney Todd, a serial-killing barber who murder its clients, has been the subject of a number of writings, plays and movies since 1846. However Tim Burton’s movie is the screen adaptation of a popular musical staged in the seventies that gives a new motive for Todd’s unspeakable acts: vengeance.

I need to emphasize the latter point: Sweeney Todd is a musical… I loathe musicals… And this one, though intellectually very pleasant, is particularly disturbing as the lyrics are… let us say far from the usual musical type. Now, once one gets used to the constant singing and the theme it is classis Burton extravaganza. The acting is flawless – one will enjoy the cameo appearance of Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat/AliG), excellent direction, maybe the photography of Darius Khondji, with its extremely desaturated colors (probably in order to make the omnipresent blood more red) is sometime a tad to dark to well appreciate all details.

My verdict: Go and see it, you shouldn’t be disappointed. But be aware not to prepare meat for dinner… ;-)