Another Tim Burton/Johnny Depp team up and one that doesn't disappoint.

The cast also includes Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Sacha Baron Cohen so an all-star event with fantastic iconic British actors (hmm, well, I wouldn't normally include SBC in that, but he was surprisingly ok in this). Buffy and Angel fans should watch out for Anthony Head making a brief appearance in the market scene.

It has an 18 rating and is available now on DVD for around £7. I rented this and the rental DVD did not include any special features.

The Plot
Well, I'm not going to give too much away. We all know the basics, barber, bodies, pie shop next door, revenge. The film is based on the stage musical by Stephen Sondhiem.

The Music
I have to say it took me 10 or 15 minutes to 'get into' this film. I knew it was a musical, but I'd thought that meant there would be a few occassions of bursting into song, as in 'Oliver' or something, but in fact this is nearly all sung dialogue. And none of those actors are really known for their singing voices. The young actor Jamie Campbell Bower was the only truly talented singer. The others got by.

I found this quite difficult to get used to but once I'd got engrosed in the plot, it all seemed much more natural. Once you got used to ridiculously mundane dialogue being sung, overall the music was terrific. Not just during the songs themselves, the background music went a long way towards creating a dramatic and slightly creepy (typical Tim Burton then) atmosphere. One of the best moments in the film is the song about different pie flavours...very funny.

The Acting.
Excellent performances from all. Helena Bonham-Carter's accent was a bit too comedy cockney - she was selling 'pooeyes' and wasn't as good as the other actors. If an American, Johnny Depp, can get it right, a Brit should be able to. Her eye-rolling hag evoked both sympathy and disgust. She managed to portray that this character was doing (or was willing to do) despicable things while not necessarily enjoying all of them.

Depp was definitely 'channelling' Captain Jack Sparrow from time to time and there were parts that were too mumbled to understand. Otherwise, he did his usual good job in a whacky role. This role could easily have become too comedic in its extreme moments, but Depp stayed on just the right side of hamming it up.

Timothy Spall made a truly repugnant beadle (watch for the icky scene with the little girl in the market, it's only a couple of seconds but sets your imagination off into all sorts of directions you wish it hadn't gone).
Alan Rickman, born to play bad-guys bless him, still manages to provide this character with more than one dimension and almost makes us sympathetic to him once or twice.

Ed Sanders, a boy of about 12(?) did very well in his role, also had a good singing voice, and was satisfyingly 'un-cute'.

Cinematography.
It's easy to fall at the feet of Tim Burton and assume everything he does is great, which isn't true, but this was a good representation of this story. Filmed in what seemed to be only tones of sludge, he shows us a dark and dangerous London, grim without being gruesome, and one of the most interesting sequences is when Todd first arrives and walks to his former home. The fast swoop through the street over just a few seconds contains a huge amount of telling detail (collapsed person on street fleetingly glimpsed, for example) that convincingly builds our mental picture of Todd's view of London.

The violent parts are well handled, with Todd almost appearing to dance though his actions. Cuts and camera angles keep the action mostly off camera at first, but the film gets increasingly bloody and overt as it builds to the climax. Which is a shocker!

Overall
Terrific couple of hours entertainment. Even Mr ToT, who hates horror movies, blood and guts and stuff, enjoyed this film, despite it's graphic moments, as it is so much more than just cut, slash and gore.