THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When one seeks revenge, there is no guarantee on whether or not the actions will be worth taking.
PLOT
Based on the Hugh Wheeler novel and Christopher Bond play of the same name, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street takes place in 1846 and follows the titular character, formerly known as Benjamin Barker, return to London after 15 years of false imprisonment. This was possible due to the corrupt Judge Turpin lusting after his wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly). Upon his return, he befriends a young sailor named Anthony and resumes his work as a barber. Below the shop lies Nellie Lovett who runs a meat pie shop. Recognizing Todd, she shares that Turpin raped his wife during his exile. And after that incident, she poisoned herself with arsenic. With no biological parent present, The Barkers' daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener) would spend her life to be the judge's ward. Enraged of this discovery, Todd vows revenge and Lovett encourages it by offering him back his razor blades. Ironically, Anthony would soon be enamored with Johanna when unaware of her relation to Todd. When caught by Turpin, he is driven away by his henchman beadle Bamford, demanding to keep his distance from her. As the day proceeds, Todd witnesses a public display by another barber named Adolfo Pirelli, only to denounce his hair tonic to be fraud and humiliates him in a public shaving contest. Days later, Pirelli confronts Todd and confesses to recognizing him, swearing to keep his identity secret unless he gets half of his earnings. Todd instead takes a bigger risk by killing him to keep his secret. When Lovett sees what he's done, she convinces him to spare his young assistant Tobias Ragg, allowing him to be her assistant in the pie shop. With Turpin intending to marry Johanna, Bamford suggests him to visit Todd for grooming after witnessing him outwit Pirelli. Todd does shave his tormentor and almost kills him, but is stopped when Anthony abruptly announces his intent to elope with his daughter. Upset of missing his opportunity of revenge, the barber plans to kill until another chance comes around. Lovett helps him cover up the tracks by turning each customer/victim into pies and rigging the barber chair to drop the bodies through a trapdoor, that'll take them to her bakehouse. When Turpin found out of Anthony's intent to elope with Johanna, he sends her to an insane asylum to prevent it from happening. Once Anthony figures out where she is, he poses as a a wigmaker's apprentice to save her. In the meantime, Todd sends Tobias to give a letter to Turpin that Johanna will be brought after Anthony frees her. Suspicion rises when the barber chooses to kill Bamford who reported of the chimney's stink. He then joins Lovett to search for Tobias did not return after sending the letter. He has been hiding in the sewers since then due to the frightening discovery of the bakehouse. During this search party, Anthony brings Johanna to the barbershop, leaving her to wait there while he goes looking for Todd. When a beggar woman enters the shop to look for Bamford, Todd returns and she claims to recognize him. As Johanna hides in the trunk inside the shop, he kills the beggar and dumps her body through the trapdoor just when Turpin returns. He claims that a now repented Johanna will come to him, but quickly offers a free shave while waiting. At this moment, Todd finally takes revenge and kills Turpin with his razor blade. When Johanna comes out of the trunk, Todd almost kills her for not recognizing her in the disguise Anthony gave her. He stops himself when Lovett screams in shock as Turpin grabs at her dress in his dying breath. When Todd enters the bakehouse, he realizes that the beggar was Lucy all along, meaning Lovett misled him in order to have him for herself. Heartbroken that he killed his wife, he kills her too by hurling her into the oven. As Johanna and Anthony run away to elope, the film ends with Todd being killed by Tobias, as an act of revenge for Lovett.
THOUGHTS
There have been many musicals that have been able to bring the feeling of joy and excitement, which made it a big surprise for this one to feel so frightened. Director Tim Burton and Writer John Logan are able to pull viewers into a world that surrounds us with pure dread. You feel it all through the suspenseful music and incredible production design by Dante Ferretti. The violence that is witnessed is so grotesque yet intriguing at the same time because you never thought you'd see such content be displayed in between a song. When I look back, I think the reason this movie has maintained such popularity has to be how we put ourselves in a deep rabbit hole when we choose to let one emotion control us. In this case, anger is the worst of which to do so because it can lead to us acting at our most irrational. As we follow the perspective of Sweeney Todd, Oscar nominee Johnny Depp portrays this characters to be at his most demented due to the heartbreak he is feeling. With his daughter being the only reason left for him to live, his decisions are more reckless than they are wise. When you first see him sing 'No Place Like London', you know he can be idealistic, but by the time he sings 'Epiphany', my favorite song of the film, it is all clear on how broken he had become. You want to be satisfied that he gets revenge, but you only feel sorrow when realizing the mistake he made. When he finds himself responsible for the loss of his own wife, his guilt couldn't bare him to live any longer. Whether or not he knew Tobias was behind him, it didn't matter because all he cared about that point was being put of misery. If there is an afterlife, I hope he finds a new form of happiness with or without Lucy. The one person with the biggest heart in this movie has to be Anthony because Jamie Campbell Bower shows him to be one whose youth makes him enthusiastic. Like Todd, his heart has him approach things as idealistic as possible, even if it likely wouldn't work out for others. He quickly falls for Johanna because he sees her innocence and feels her desire to explore like him. She gives him a chance throughout before either speak to each other because she sensed that he's not trying to treat her as an object. With that said, I'm sure they found a happily ever after once they escaped from the horrors in London. The scariest thing about people is that some can do wrong and believe their intentions make them right. Whenever Helena Bonham Carter enetered the screen, we already knew Lovett had her own form of insanity at hand. On her end, she acted so psychotic based on her desires: She supported cannibalism because she needed money and she lied to Todd about Lucy because she thought she was in love with him. Here, it seems that feels so has to be the thought of it all. Noticing how they are both broken people, she believes they are meant to be. When listening to 'By the Sea', it proves how twisted she is to believe she has good chances. Sadly for her, her happily ever after doesn't get to happen, which is a consequence of dishonesty. Aside from Anthony, the only other character we want to root for has to be Tobias since the young Edward Sanders makes him the most innocent of the bunch. The kid worked with whoever just to survive and was relieved to meet Lovett because she gave him the motherly love he needed to be headstrong. When Todd took that from him, there was no way he would let that go, which explains why he did what he did. Whatever happened to the boy after that, I hope it's a better position than first introduced. The reason why Todd became a mad man is because he is surrounded by worser people who abuse their power for fun. When Sacha Baron Cohen sung during 'The Contest', you're quickly aware that Adolfo Pirelli is the most flamboyant guy out there because he is living off of greed. So when he first bites the dust, there is no need to sympathize him at all. Of course Timothy Spall shows off Bamford to be extremely greasy, but that's because he aligns himself with the most diabolical man in town. Greatly portrayed by Alan Rickman, Judge Turpin is the worst not just for his cruelty to the innocent, but for being so openly manipulative as well. The guy is so lustful that he is wiling to do anything to gain that satisfaction, no matter how painful it would be for others. Easily giving us reasons to hate him, it is all we need to root for Todd to kill him as brutally as he did. Even for a movie as amusing as this, there were still a slew of questionable moments that bothered me throughout. For example, I respect Todd choosing to maintain a relationship with Anthony by letting him where he tends to reside, but how how is he sure he’ll keep it? Did someone tell him no one picked up the room during that 15 year gap? It doesn’t look like no one can afford it, so it’s crazy that Todd gets it back without fighting for it. And I’m honestly surprised that the pie shop stuck around as long as it had when Lovett claims business to be poor. If her pies were so bad before reverting to cannibalism, it’s harder to believe it never went under before Todd entered the picture. Turpin definitely had a vile plan for assaulting Lucy in the middle of the party, but how the hell did he get away with it? The partygoers may have been drunk that night, but even in an older period, it’s not like no one would speak up. You know it is a creative concept for Todd to prove his barber skills in public against Pirelli, but I’m in shock for anyone to put faith between two barbers in a competition to be the fastest at shaving. I mean that’s asking to get hurt. Also, how come Turpin and Beadle don’t recognize Todd at all? Lovett and Pirellli figure it out before the end of the day, yet these two antagonists are clueless until the end of their lives. It’s especially baffling in the case of Turpin since he visits Todd in the same room he first operated 15 years prior. For a guy so obsessive, he should’ve drawn some kind of suspicion. I don’t blame Anthony getting too excited to share his situation with Todd, but how the hell does he think it’s a good idea to share your plans before you know he’s alone? Of course he didn’t expect Turpin to be there, but I don’t think he’d want anyone else to know either. It gets crazier that Turpin still chose to trust Todd afterwards when he realized he is acquainted with Anthony. It’s definitely a devious plan to kill customers and use their bodies for the pies, but does anyone get suspicious by not noticing people leave the place? Considering that Todd spared at least one customer, I’m again surprised that no one really bats an eye on the trail of missing people. Even if the targets are people who won’t be missed, it’s not like no one would be curious. Other than that, this is still a pretty interesting story to see unfold. In short, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is indeed an underrated musical for not being the typical kind. You want a movie that’ll shake it up for you, this should do the trick.
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