Sam Mendes SWEENEY TODD- What Might Have Been?- Page 4

[americanboy99]

Posted: 12/25/07 at 8:03am

For those of you said no one laughed in your theatre, you must have a pretty boring audience. People were howling at Carter.

She was absolutely fabulous.

[artsamore]

Posted: 12/25/07 at 10:00am

Thanks Brick....that comment was truly *genius*!

Alright guys I give. I can't see it at all but whatever..that is the beauty of the business.....I guess

[sabrelady]

Posted: 12/25/07 at 10:14am

HBC was fine in some of the acting sequences as previously mentioned. Which makes the rest of her performance more painful. I found myself thinking though "if this is what she sounds like WITH Protools how bad must she otherwise be? Even when she is active ( G*d That's Good)she still comes across as cardboard. But I blame her director more than her. She has to go in the direction he points or end up in an artistic wrangle ( not to mention a home life)
Total aside- Any one catch Anthony Heads miniscule cameo after Pirelli's Elixer?

[Luscious]

Posted: 12/25/07 at 11:06am

At first I thought Bonham-Carter's performance could have been stronger, and maybe it could have been. But then it dawned on me that Bonham-Carter was playing Lovett like a woman who has already resigned herself to death. She is quite literally the walking dead; her garish, zombie-like make-up accentuating the point. The only time that, for a moment, she allows herself to imagine what life might be like is during "By the Sea", and even that vision is eerily without much life. That's just my take on Bonham Carter's interpretation of the role.

[roquat]

Posted: 12/25/07 at 10:10pm

"A woman who has already resigned herself to death."

Exactly.

How does that serve the text?

Did she think she was playing Sweeney?

And for absolutely the LAST time, I did not expect (or want) Bonham Carter or anyone else to try to ape the previous stage interpretations of Lovett. I understand the difference between stage and film acting, and between stage and film musicals. John Logan's adaptation was for the most part brilliant (the underemphasized Beggar Woman notwithstanding) and there were several stunning sequences. I have already stated that I admired Bonham-Carter's choices during "Not While I'm Around"--her performance actually came to life for a scene or two, before she lapsed into her usual vague, abstracted, apathetic manner. She began to make Sweeney look positively joyous.