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Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) is a barber who is wrongfully sentenced into exile in Australia by Judge Turpin (Allan Rickman) who lusted for Barker’s wife, Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly). After 15 years, Barker escapes prison and returns to London assuming a different persona by the name of Sweeney Todd. There he learns of his wife’s suicide and her daughter, Johanna (Jane Wisener), is now under Judge Turpin’s custody. Sweeney Todd vows revenge upon Judge Turpin who destroyed him and his family. He goes back to his old house/ barbershop where his former landlady and meat pie shop owner Mrs. Nellie Lovett recognizes him. Mrs. Lovett returns his razor and he plots his revenge by plotting a scheme to lure Judge Turpin to come to him for a shave. But when a competitor recognizes Sweeny Todd from his past life, he panics and he turns into a serial killer by slitting the throat of every man who goes to his shop for a shave. Situation turns even darker when Mrs. Lovett suggests that corpses be used as main ingredient for her meat pies so as to solve the problem of disposing the bodies.
Sweeney Todd is superbly, masterfully crafted. As expected, Tim Burton demonstrates once again his out-of-the-box filmmaking sense that borders between surreal and absurd. It is not usual for audiences to see musical adaptations tackle a theme as dark as this movie’s. Johnny Depp proves time and again that he is a powerful thespian with his impeccable screen presence along with the entire casts who all turned out very good. The music and the entire feel of the movie are both haunting and lingering. Although the film may not necessarily be entertaining to everyone, it is a breath of fresh air from the run-of-the-mill formulaic horror and thriller plots.
Although a musical, Sweeney Todd is not your usual Broadway adaptation that can be suited to young audiences. There’s bursting of blood in almost half of the movie’s running time. The slashing and slitting of throat in countless scenes leaves a desensitizing effect on one’s tolerance to blood and gore. Furthermore, the graphic violence in the movie, though not actually realistic but stylistic, appears so real that it may result in trauma or nightmare. All the other undertones in the film such as suicide, child abuse, alcoholism and cannibalism make the film a real morality play. How far can one go for a sweet revenge? Well, revenge is not sweet after all as the movie says no one’s a winner in such a demonic end. Throughout the story, the audiences witness the moral decay of Sweeney Todd, given his circumstances and a child’s loss of innocence. But then, revenge is never justified, never glorified and ultimately, there is no redemption in the movie and Sweeney Todd gets what he truly deserves in the end.
(Date Reviewed: 18 January 2008)
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