I haven’t enjoyed a movie in a very long time. I’ve seen a few, mind, but none of them delivered on the promise of early reviews or trailers. Indeed a good number of them, such as I Am Legend, weren’t even promising to begin with. Yet strangely, I approached Sweeney Todd with no apprehensions, nor did I once doubt its potential prowess. In fact, I was actually looking forward to this movie. Movies I have such a feeling about are not so much few and far between as they are people in an Alabama KFC with a viable body cholesterol index: they do happen, but extremely rarely, and once one happens one it’s usually epochs before you see one again. Ocean’s Thirteen was the last, before that I can’t recall looking forward to a movie with expectation, and incredibly, though not altogether unexpectedly, Sweeney Todd delivered.

Knowing that literally tonnes of armchair movie critics [which isn’t very many frankly, given the usual bulk of the average movie critic, combined with their higher-than-average density] would probably have eagerly smashed their meaty digits over their keyboards deifying the Tim Burton-Johnny Depp partnership and demanding bronze statues of the two fellating each other be wrought as a consecration of their eminent symbiosis, I won’t bother going into that. Indeed I won’t even agree the Burton-Depp partnership was a major factor in this movie’s success; it’s not like every movie they made together was a good one [see Bride, Corpse and Factory, Charlie and the] and besides, script-wise it couldn’t get much better than a pre-prepared Stephen Sondheim musical. Genius served on a platter as far as the ‘story-writers’ were concerned for this particular flick. In fact the movie was a success for me due to nothing more than two factors: one, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter turned in a brilliant shift, and two, Tim Burton was the luckiest director in Hollywood storyline-wise.

What can I say? Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, spring chicken vestal virgins as far as musical performing goes, somehow pulled it off. There is no doubt the two are talented actors, though the melodramatic Depp’s flame has flickered significantly in more extravagant roles, this one was an ideal story to showcase his undoubted talent in looking bland. The lad pulls a great deadpan, so much so that one scene in particular, the montage of Todd and Mrs Lovett planning their future together [well it really was just Mrs Lovett planning both their lives together, but let’s not be unnecessarily semantical, I’m actually writing a positive movie review], became an almost apologetic parody of Depp’s prowess at facially evoking character despondence.

Less well-predicted was the leads’ ability to flourish in musical-movie roles, one which is sufficiently challenging as to be considered unfeasible by the largesse of the mainstream actors and hence the directors. Do not be fooled by the recent proliferation of musical movies, not since Julie Andrews and Audrey Hepburn could anyone claim to have adequately reproduced specialist musical acting in a full-scale movie setting. Depp and Bonham Carter stepped into the breech and came through unscathed, as their prowess in conveying the melodramatic carried into a radical new acting style. I’m in no position to be assured the vocals and sound editing team didn’t have a field day going through the singing parts, so whether it was natural talent or heavily glossed-over editing that comprised the major glory of the final product remains to be judged by the more discerning, it however left a decent positive impression upon this movie-goer.
Taken in its entirety the movie was a trademark Tim Burton; melodrama and whimsy ran parallel to one another all the way through, creating the prevalent mood. Most of the signature Burton film nuances were present: the ghostly pallor of the characters’ faces, the surrealistic scenery, backed up by splendidly atonal and abstract music, the vibrantly computer-generated graphics which somehow seem out of place, yet distinctly complement the otherwise oddly contrasting overriding melancholy of the whole film. You get the feeling something prevailingly sinister is pervading the entire context of the movie, even though the attempted imagery is unabashedly cheerful. The wry moments of comedy expertly inserted at well-spaced intervals are another key feature of a Tim Burton flick such as this one. All movies will somehow attempt this, yet none seem to achieve the same complementary effect as the humour moments in Sweeney Todd, or perhaps they’re just unlucky they don’t have the mastery of Johnny Depp to carry it through. All in all this was aces as a movie, the perfect way to begin a year, leaving the prevailing cynic in me pretty much assuming it could only go downhill from here in 2008. Highly recommended. A+ [and an extra couple of stars on top]