Good, I liked it. I didn’t know the story before this film, so it was all new to me and can’t make comparisons, I can only say that I liked this one. Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham-Carter and Johnny Depp, they were all good, both acting and singing. I also loved the lights, meaning how it was all ‘dark’ as in giving the right atmosphere. The scene was so full of light and yellow when he was happy with his family, but now throughout the film everything is dark, grey, giving the impression of being dirty even if it’s not.
It’s a musical, most of the story is in songs.
I was never a big fan of SBC who plays Pirelli here, but it’s ok. I was just relieved when it turned out that his character was only pretending to be Italian, so that terrible accent becomes perfectly ok, because of course someone not Italian would think that simply putting an ‘a’ at the end of most words is the right way to fake Italian…but it would not be ok if he were supposed to really be Italian.
The story is a cruel one, honestly, and I’m a bit miffed that Rickman plays such a disgusting character.
Details now:
This is the story of Benjamin Barker, who once lived happily in London, working as a barber. He had a wife and a baby girl. A beautiful wife, Lucy, so beautiful that one day Judge Turpin saw her and dcided he had to have her, so he took Benjamin out of the picture by sending him away, imprisonedon false charges for 15 years (I think it should have been more, he thanks young sailor Anthony for saving him when he found him at sea, so I guess he escaped? Because surely Turpin had no desire to see him back…)
Once alone, Lucy did not yield, so the judge faked contrition so she’d go to him, and there was a big masquerade party, and he took her against her will and nobody helped her.
Now Barker is back in London, under the name Sweeney Todd. He goes to Fleet Street and Mrs Lovett recognizes him because she never forgot him. She’s always been in love with him, and now she tells him that Lucy poisoned herself and Turpin took the baby in and raised her as his ward. Mrs Lovett gives him his old room where he used to work, and also his old silver razors that he was so skilled with. Quite valuable, and yet she never sold them and kept them for him.
Anthony sees young Johanna at her window and falls for her, and is right away threatened by the judge and beaten by his thug.
A public challenge to Pirelli makes him known, but a short while later Pirelli goes to him. Pirelli once worked for him for a while, enough to recognize his silver razors and realize who he is, so he wants to blackmail him. Todd kills him. As soon as he explains about the blackmail, Mrs Lovett is okay with it, but she refuses to let him kill the kid that worked for the man. The poor kid had been taken from the orphanage from Pirelli who used to make him work and beat him and treat him cruelly. Mrs Lovett feels for the kid and takes him in, to work with her at her shop. She seels meat pies, but she was failing because good meat is too expensive, but now that they need to get rid of Pirelli’s body, she thinks that it’s a waste to bury him somewhere, when there’s such a demand for meat… so she makes meat pies out of him.
Turpin kept Johanna locked in the house, probably in her room, at all times, and used to spy on her. Now that she’s grown enough, he wants to marry her, so he goes to Todd to improve his looks… and Todd would have had his revenge right then but Anthony chose that moment to barge in with his plan to run away with Johanna. Turpin hears of course, and storms out in a rage. He orders to lock her up in an asylum because of it, as punishment.
Todd is furious that he was denied his revenge, possibly forever since Turpin said he’ll never come back there. He’s thirsty for blood, so from then on he kills the lonely men who come for a shave (but not the one with a wife and child waiting for him). Mrs Lovess’s business thrives with all the meat he provides. The kid Toby now works for her, is never beaten and can eat whenever he wants. His life is good now, a huge improvement on how it was with that demon Pirelli, but Toby suspects Todd and wants to protect her, because she’s important to him, she saved him and gave him this new, great life. So he sings that ‘nothing’s gonna harm you, not whileI’m around’, but Mrs Lovett knows of course, and in turn she wishes she could protect him but knows that she can’t now that he’s learned everything. He saw her taking money from Pirelli’s coin purse, so she takes him downstairs where she bakes her pies. There’s nothing to see at the moment, but she locks him inside, and will later go there with Todd, but without finding him. Toby discovered by himself the truth, seeing what the meat is made of, and hid from them.
For now, upon learning where Johanna is, Todd suggests to Anthony how he can free her and take her away, and then he writes a letter to Turpin, explaining the couple’s plans and inviting him to his shop to wait for them. Once Turpin arrives, Todd finally kills him, while they sing Pretty Women together.
A beggar woman who keeps telling everyone that evil things are happening here, enters Todd’s shop moments before Turpin, so he has no time to waste on her when his chance at revenge is so close. He kills her without a thought.
After killing Turpin, Todd notices that Johanna is in there, hidden, and therefore she probably witnessed everything. She’s there because Anthony took her there to hide while he arranges for their escape, and she decided to hide when he heard someone coming.
At first he plans to kill her - he does not know who she is, since she was just a baby the last time he saw her, and she is now disguised as a boy quite effectively. She’s no more than 16, so she looks like just a kid, so it’s normal that there’s no evidence of beard whatsoever.
Still, when he hears Mrs Lovett’s scream, he simply lets her go after telling her to forget everything. It’s not clear to me why he didn’t kill her, but maybe now that his revenge has been accomplished, his thurst for blood is not as it was…
Mrs Lovett screamed because Turpin grabbed her, but when Todd joins her in the basement he’s dead, not moving anymore. Todd sees the body of the beggar woman, looks at her and finally discovers that it’s Lucy: he thought she was dead, but Mrs Lovett never said that, she only wanted him to think that so he’d forget his wife and start a new life with her. Lucy did poison herself, but did not die. It made her a bit crazy though. Now that he knows the truth, he throws Mrs Lovett into the huge bake oven to burn to death.
Toby was hidden , bu now he comes out to sneak behind Todd and kill him for what he did.
I guess we’re supposed to think that Anthony will come for her and they will escape together… but why should they? She knows that Turpin is dead, and it wouldn’t take long to discover that the Beadle is dead as well… so why should they run away? She wanted to escape Turpin, but now what reason does she have? She could stay here, nobody is looking for her… and the man at the asylum who kept her prisoner and saw Anthony’s face is probably dead too, since he locked him inside the room with all the other prisoners who launched at him…
I’d say she should stay around and get to know Anthony before doing anything…
Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd
Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs Lovett
Alan Richman as Judge Turpin
Timothy Spall as Beadle
Sacha Baron Cohen as Pirelli
Edward Sanders as Toby
Laura Michelle Kelly as Lucy/beggar woman
Jayne Wisener as Johanna
ITA Sweeney Todd - il diabolico barbiere di Fleet Street
Wikipedia lists Anthony Head as ‘gentleman in street’ but he’s not in the ening credits… I also thought I saw him there, and find it strange that his name was not in the credits…
In English they say slasher film, not splatter.
