Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Musicals are sometimes tricky and when you're too familiar with the songs you might start to get too familiar with the plot before you've actually seen it on stage or in this case the movie version. The only time you really need to know the music before watching the actual production either on stage or as a movie, is Cats.
After having watched the movie:
(Possible spoilers below)
I didn't realize this would be a Harry Potter reunion with Snape, Bellatrix, and Pettigrew all acting together in this movie. I absolutely loved Helena Bonham Carter and she is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses. I absolutely loved her in Alice in Wonderland as the Queen of Hearts, but I think my favorite of her performances were in this movie and the Harry Potter series. I love the way she makes crazy look so great.
I read a lot of the facts and trivia for the movie on IMDB after having finished the movie. I couldn't believe it had been in the development for nearly twenty-five years. That's incredible. I couldn't imagine trying to piece together a movie over that long of a time period, I guess I'm really not as patient as I maybe thought I was. Naturally as you're trying to piece together the movie over time you would imagine casting different people in all of the roles. I think any of those seriously considered would have done an amazing job; however some of the people considered for role of Sweeney Todd over the years really stuck out to me: Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Steve Martin, and Tim Curry.
So was it worth the twenty-five year wait? Yes. Was it worth seeing in theaters? I'm not sure. The one thing I really hated about the movie was that I had to constantly adjust the volume. I'm sure if I had watched this movie at night, my neighbors would have hated me. The volume was so low, that a lot of times I either had to turn the volume up super loud or go back and watch the scene again to hear all of the dialogue. After doing this for about thirty minutes, I was irritated and it ruined the entire experience.
As far as the story and plot are concerned, this was something that certainly had Tim Burton's name all over it. It's dark and wouldn't be one of the first musicals I introduce to children, but I think any adult who is on the fence with musicals would like this movie. The plot however is a bit obvious, but I think most musicals tend to be. For musicals, there is a "free pass" for loose and obvious plots that we give away freely in exchange for getting to watch the actors sing. I mean, we kind of realize that when we first see the woman first being turned away by Mrs. Lovett that it's really Sweeney Todd's wife. We let it go though, because we're just happy that Helena Bonham Carter is busy singing to us about how great her new meat pies are.
Final thoughts: It's too bad there were volume issues with this movie, because I think I would have really enjoyed watching it under more ideal conditions. I don't think I'm being picky either, because when I sit down to watch a movie I want to go on an adventure with the characters and forget about the world around me. I can't do that when it's an exercise to ride the remote.
OFFICIAL COUNT 33 DOWN 332 TO GO
Next up: Pulp Fiction
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