Sweeney Todd Review

Despite Oscar buzz, audiences heavily steered clear of Tim Burton's horror musical, Sweeney Todd. I, on the other hand, was excited to see it because of all the buzz and nominations its been getting. Besides, there isn't much else out there.

The first 20 minutes or so are hard to get through. Perhaps it was weird to see those actors belting out tunes or because every time you forget it was a musical, there's another song. But every time they started singing, it felt really inappropriate and awkward. Around the time little Toby (played by the adorable Ed Sanders) gets on screen for the first time, you feel a little better because he's just so cute. This was also the first musical number that wasn't so moody and dark. Not that I didn't appreciate the moody and the dark because I did and if you see this movie, expect a lot of that. It just took a bit of getting used to. You think of musicals as fun extravagant numbers with dancing and dazzle and all that jazz, but this movie is far from that. The numbers are not particularly catchy or fun, but disturbing and twisted.

However, by the time Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter started singing and dancing about putting dead people into meat pies, I was sold.

The rest of the movie is just as delightfully dark and comical. It was a great story with several unexpected turns that had me thinking "I should have seen this coming." It was well written and well filmed, with an extraordinary cast. You have to applaud the leads, Depp and Carter, for taking the cinematic risk they did. Both of them are on my list of best actors of all time and this movie is one of the reasons why. Another great casting was the always great, Alan Rickman, who seamlessly portrays the creepy, perverted Judge Turpin, that Depp's character is obsessed with killing. Fun fact for Harry Potter fans: his faithful sidekick Beadle in the movie was played by Timothy Spall, who is the Wormtail to Rickman's Snape in the Harry Potter franchise. Spall is one guy that I would love to see cast in a likeable role. He's a good actor, but he plays the same ratty little evil minion in every movie. But he was great along with everyone else. Even Sacha Baron Cohen, who I hate with a fiery passion, was enjoyable. And who knew Borat could sing?

The verdict: check it out. It certainly deserves all the buzz it's been getting. It has something for everyone, if you don't mind a little throat slitting here and there. Do you think it's wrong that seeing it put me in the mood for a meat empanada? Whatever, it was delicious and at least there were no lawyers or priests in mine.