Well i just got back from a showing with my girlfriend. By the most unfortunate coincidence, we ended up in a theatre full of the most vocal and obnoxious Johnny Depp fan girls and boys I've ever seen. When he sang for the first time, there was a chorus of giggles and laughs that filled the theatre. Some girl in the back actually said quite loudly something to the effect of "OH MY GOD, HE CAN SING!!!". They got better as the movie went on, but it was really annoying at first.
Anyways, about the actual movie: I really liked it but wow, they weren't kidding when they said it was bloody, were they? The blood was just flowing everywhere. The Judge's death was particularly gruesome because he just didn't slit the throat like the rest of them, he tore at it again and again. One thing I did love was how the bodies went head first down the chute. It just added even more to the brutality. Mrs. Lovett's moment was also pretty graphic. I wasn't expecting to actually see her roast alive in the oven. It does have a few weak spots, but all in all I think it's an excellent adaptation of the Sondhiem-Wheeler musical.
First off:
Johnny Depp - what a truly menacing and creepy Sweeney. What more can I say? By far his best work in a long time.
Helena Bonham Carter - as I expected, her light breathy singing completly suited her take on Mrs. Lovett. She acted the heck out of the role and I was taken in with her. Her delivery of some of her lines got some laughs from the audience. One thing I loved about her take on the role was that for the first time, I got the sense that Mrs. Lovett deeply cared about Toby. The look on her face after she locks him in the bakehouse was just great cause you could see the grief she was feeling. On the DVD, it always seemed to me that she was using him as more of an expendable tool that could be disposed of when the time was right.
Ed Sanders - loved his Toby. Not While I'm Around convinced me that it was right to use a child for the role. I almost felt sorry for Toby during the song because I knew what was coming next.
Production design - awesome! Visually the movie was a treat. From the opening credits to the dreary and drabby London to the flashback sequences, there was always something to catch your eye. Loved the bugs during Worst Pies. One thing I especially liked was the By The Sea sequence. It was so funny seeing Depp in the stiped suit and Carter in her blue suit with the glasses. I thought that Sweeney's blank-stare look was perfect for that song.
Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall - outstanding performances both. Both were deliciously evil enough. I definatly wasn't expecting the brutal beating that the Beadle gave Anthony!
Sacha Baron Cohen was great as well. The Contest was well done, and he sounded convincing with his two accents. His falsetto note and the Italian flag got laughs in the theatre.
Jamie Campbell Bower and Jayne Wisener were ok, but they're really not the focus of the movie anyway and I didn't miss Kiss Me or Ah, Miss at all. I did feel that the movie slowed down a little bit after Epiphany when Anthony starts to sing again, and it was a little strange where, after Anthony gets thrown out and beaten over the head several times with a cane, he then gets up and resumes to sing Johanna. I am glad that they finally gave Anthony a backbone when it came to dealing with Fogg. I hated the way he always got cold feet and couldn't shoot in the stage show.
Overall, this is a mighty fine adaptation of a great musical. I didn't miss most of the cut numbers, except for the chorus parts during God, That's Good. I think it was a good decision to cut the ballad; it works fine as underscore is more of a theatrical device anyway. The only cut song I would like to have seen was the Judge's Johanna. The character of the Judge was pretty well developed in the film, but I think the addition of his song would have added even more development and would have made the audience really abhorr him.
My other little gripe was that there were times where the music seemed way too loud. I don't know whether it was just the theatre where we saw it, but some moments the orchestral Grand Guignol music blasted through the speakers.
My girfriend who hated Rent, and only slightly liked Dreamgirls loved this movie, and we'll probably see it again next weekend. She also admitted when we were walking out that the sight of Johnny Depp drenched in blood turned her on (go figure).
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
Updated On: 12/22/07 at 11:55 PM
