My Review:
**WARNING**: POSSIBLE SPOILERS. and I tend to ramble... a LOT.. so I apologize in advance for the ginormous size of this post! lol
Alright, so I shall start off by first saying that I knew very, very little of Sweeney Todd before the movie came out. I knew the jist of the plot, but that was about it. So I really went into it as unbiased as one can be. Although, I suppose I was biased to an extent in that I am a huge Johnny Depp fan, so I was automatically rooting for the movie to be good. I also feel the need to mention that I am NOT so much a Sondheim fan (I know, I know, as a theater finatic that's blasphemy). I have tried to be, I really have, but I just personally find little of his music appealing, and his shows have not really captivated me. I saw Company on Broadway this past year, and I loved it solely because of Raul Esparza who is probably my favorite Broadway actor of all time, and he- and perhaps the rest of the incredibly talented cast as well- MADE me have an incredible theater experience despite the fact that the show itself, overall, was quite lackluster for me. Basically, every time I've seen a Sondheim show I've tried to love it with all my heart, but I've only loved bits and pieces of them depending on who is in them.
Sweeney, though, I had high hopes for because I have had the soundtrack for a while now, and quite enjoyed it- I still don't love a ton of the music, but as a whole, I love the recording and what of the story comes through on it. Plus, watching commercials and clips, well.. the only way I can think to describe what I expected it to be was "fierce". It just plain looked FIERCE.
And, now, having seen it, I can say that it WAS. There is a WHOLE lot of good in this movie. Not the least of which are the performances. Every single person in the cast- particularly Johnny and Helena- kicked some MAJOR butt in this movie. For me, watching the movie, it didn't matter a single solitary bit that they weren't the greatest singers in the world, because they were very good (especially Johnny), and they are such FRIGGIN brilliant actors it's sickening. I also have to give a shout out to a one Ed Sanders- that boy is just wonderful!! He reminds me very much of Freddie Highmore when Freddie made his debut in Finding Neverland. He's like a breath of fresh air, he's so pure and adorable, and he and Helena has SUCH beautiful chemistry together.
I feel I need to draw on some of the best points of Johnny and Helena for a minute:
-I've been of the opinion that Johnny is one of the greatest actors of our time for a long time now. But this movie truly showcased ALL his talent perfectly. I am constantly amazed by subtle things: like, for example, in the scene just after Poor Thing, the way he somehow manages to make it feel like he's crying, and seem like he's crying, without actually doing it. And how in My Friends there is a specific, very definitive moment where you completely see that he's gone from feeling extremely sad and depressed about what has happened to feeling nothing but vengefull. When he first sees his razors again- for me at least-, he's not thinking at all about slitting throats with them. He's genuinely expressing how much he has missed them. And then all of a sudden, BAM- it hits him that they can actually help him get the revenge he's so longing for. And there's a million other spots I could point out where I was just in awe of how perfect his performance was- the perfect balance he struck so that, even in the end, you still remembered that he was not always an evil man, and you still felt for him even as he slitted throat after innocent throat- even as he was about to slit his DAUGHTER'S throat.
-Helena's real brilliance, I think, is in that she is REALLY freaking hilarious. I mean Johnny is too, but just- she is so fabulous at that completely straight-faced, dry, twisted humor, and it made her Ms. Lovette incredibly loveable. But also she's just a flat out great actress. By the time Not While I'm Around came around you REALLY felt for her.
Ok, so enough talk about the performances- basically, ALL around they were near flawless in my mind.
Other positives about the movie/story in general: It was SO much funnier than I expected it to be! I'm a person who loves dark and twisted humor haha, so I really felt that the humorous parts were some of the best. My mom and sister and I were cracking up SO hard during A Little Priest. Just the way earnestness with which they were looking out the window, contemplating which people they saw would make the best flavors. And it's funny because I've heard a lot of die hard Sweeney fans talk about how they DIDN'T like A Little Priest and that it wasn't played up enough, but, having nothing to compare it to, I thought it was just hysterical! And the glorious irony of the Johanna scene- with such a pretty, delicate song being used as he gruesomely cuts neck after neck after neck! SUCH smart writing! And of course By The Sea had me giggling like crazy as well!
The story over all was really extremely engaging. I felt for all of the characters, and I didn't even mind all the gore because it is very very obvious when it is coming, so I just prepared myself and covered my eyes because I'm a wimp like that lol. Incredibly well directed, incredibly well acted, and a very engaging story= a very strong movie.
HOWEVER:
I struggled for a few minutes after it ended to figure out, if there was so much about the movie that I DID love, why in the end I found it so disturbing. And not disturbing in a good way- not haunting because it was sad- but disturbing in a way that turned me off. And then my mom found the perfect way to put it: she asked "what's the point?". And this is probably more to do with the show/story in general than it is to do with the movie. But I just struggled with it because I felt like this over all incredibly sad story with an incredibly depressing ending had been told and it had no purpose: no real reason why the story needed to be told. And don't get me wrong, I am NOT one of those people who doesn't like any kind of sad story. Heck, if anything I'm the opposite- a good 90% of my favorite movies and shows tear my heart to shreds and I love them for it! And I don't even mind when there's not an incredibly hopeful twist in the end- I mean, I adored Bridge to Terabithia and a lot of people were incredibly turned off by it's sad ending with no real hopefullness at all. But the difference with Bridge to Terabithia, or with other sad musicals such as RENT or Spring Awakening, is that they all have SOME kind of message to them: SOME kind of purpose for having been told. For example, in RENT the message you walk away with is the need to live every day like it is your last. In Spring Awakening, the message is that parents need to be open with their children and aware of all the emotions their children go through during adolesence. I felt like, with Sweeney Todd, there was really no reason why the story ever had to be made up. And it was very frustrating because I had come to really care about these characters, and then they came to such a grim fate and there's no explanation as to why. It felt like the story had been made simply to make the world seem darker and more unfair. And that disturbed me; much more so than the idea of the story did. I can completely handle the idea of someone slitting peoples' throats and turning them into meat pies, but the idea that a story like that is being told with no apparant reason as to why? THAT made me incredibly sad, and I have a feeling that it will be haunting me for quite a while.
Again, there was SO much about the movie and the story that I loved. But if I could, I would give anything to speak to Sonheim and simply ask him "why?" Maybe I'm just missing something, but I truly cannot find the answer. And I wish that I could, because I want SO much to not feel an over all dissapointment about this movie when it's so GREAT on so many levels.
Wow, yeah, I have to profoundly thank anyone who actually took the time to READ that whole thing :) haha. Once again, I apologize, I ramble like crazy!
I don't need a life that's normal. That's way too far away. But something next to normal would be okay. Something next to normal is what I'd like to try. Close enough to normal to get by.
