Movie: "Sweeny Todd"

[timepiececlock]

Well that was splishy-splashy.

Was it good? In its own way, as a piece of cinematic art, it was wonderful. But you have to be really into that kind of thing to have said it was enjoyable.

I knew what I was getting into. I knew it was a stage play and would be almost entirely performed in song. I'd read numerous reviews talking about how bloody it was. I figured there would be a high body count.

The problem is that I went with my mother. And my mother, bless her glorious heart, is a lot like my father in her view of movies (it's no wonder they're married): both like to go to the movies to escape and to be entertained in a happy, uplifting way. They appreciate dramatic and gory cinema like The Departed if it has redeeming entertainment values: high levels of excitement, intellectual involvement on the part of the audience. They do not tend to like niche movies that are dark, gory, and ghoulish in the name of high art. Artistic blood splashes don't differ much from regular blood splashes, when it comes to my parent's movie-going tastes.

In that vein, Sweeney Todd is comparable in my mind to two films in recent years that also had very splashy artistic design: 300, and Kill Bill. In order to watch all of these and enjoy them you have to be able to look past all the blood and see the artistic set design and cinematic framing being put in front of you. The difference is that with two of these films it's worth it, and with one it's painfully not. The disappointing one, is of course, 300. I won't belabor you all with what I think of that movie.

Should you see it? Yes and no. If you're a musical theater fan or a cinema fan, if you like bloody movies or if you like dark cult movies, if you want to see Anthony Stewart Head (Giles!) for three seconds in period costume... then yeah, you will enjoy it. But if you're like my family, and you want to go to the movies for a good time and two hours of people getting their throat cuts sounds a little too much work, then you shouldn't go. Because while it may be funny, it may be arty, it may be exceedingly well-made and well-written, in the end this movie is about murder, murder, and murder, and if you find that tiresome or uncomfortable then you won't enjoy this story.


p.s. my favorite scenes were Mrs. Lovitt's flights of fance. Helena Bonham Carter is a treasure box of fine performances.

Comments

[rasielle.livejournal.com]

The timing of this review is rather incredible. My birthday is the day after tomorrow and I had been thinking about bringing my friends to watch Sweeny Todd, but after reading this, I'll probably choose something else. While artistic horror in musical form might make for a fine watch for myself and quite a few of my friends, that's just assuming we watch it individually; I seriously doubt it's a good idea if I'm trying to entertain a group of boisterous teenagers with varying taste. Especially since one avoids horror in theatres like the plague and would much rather watch that squirrel movie, orz.

Out of curiosity: how good were the musical numbers? I usually enjoy the songs in Tim Burton movies, but, er, somehow I'm not looking forward to what this Depp would whistle while he works.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

That's the gist of what I was trying to get across-- it's a great movie, but only a selective crowd will fully enjoy it. I'm one foot in, one foot out in that regard. I didn't enjoy all the throats being cut (I looked away frequently; necks are a phobia of mine), and it was pretty depressing in places, but I do love musicals and it certainly had Tim Burton's wacky verve (love that word lately) and his macabre sense of goofy. So I liked it and didn't like it at the same time.

The music was great! It was one of the high points of the film for me. Depp doesn't have a traditional voice but he can do menacing very well, and menacing is very hard to achieve in song, so I got a kick out of him. His singing was very much a part of his acting, he was batshit crazy and Very Angry and all of that went well in his song numbers. Helena Carter was also amazing-- her voice was better than Depps, very high and, mmmmmmmmm, sonorous. She had the best song in the movie, a hilarious bit where she dreams of Happily Ever After. Alan Rickman had a very pleasant voice, though he didn't sing much. There's a young boy in the film who does a fantastic job, acting and singing-- he was clearly cast for voice talent moreso than the leading actors were. The young sailor also has a beautiful voice-- and a very striking, pretty face that gets one's attention, even if his looks are too feminine for me personally.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

It's really hard to tell with these things, though. I thought my mom would hate Kill Bill, but she liked it despite the gore and despite the Asian movie homages (she doesn't share my love of anime.) On the other hand, she saw Pan's Labyrinth in the theater with me, and hated it because it was so dark. Later, months later, she recommended it to my aunt, but that's after she had a while to get over the shock of how unhappy a majority of the story was. She had expected more fantasy, less war film. But she did admire it later, in recollection, so who knows.

My advice about this one stands, though. Take your friends to see something else, like Enchanted, or Charlie Wilson's War, or the Golden Compass. Stay away from the Chipmunks.