Another macabre masterpiece from weirdmeister Tim Burton and his favorite muse, Johnny Depp. I saw this movie during the holidays, and it was a welcome antidote to all those heart warming films that usually come out at that time of year. Who wants to see Santa and his elves or the family reunion around a turkey dinner when you can watch Johnny Depp hack up the denizens of old London with a straight razor. The Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical has been translated to the screen in fine form, with a marvelous cast (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Timothy Spall, Jamie Campbell Bower and Ed Sanders), a fabulous recreation of old-time London and just enough black humor and stylish gore to make the whole mix tasty. This has never been one of my favorite Sondheim musicals, but the songs really come alive in the film. Pretty cool that all the major players do their own singing, acquitting themselves rather well with songs that don't really require a trained voice from any of the actors. Johnny Depp gives a great performance as the vengeful barber who has returned to London after being sent away on a false charge by villainous judge Alan Rickman, who coveted Depp's lovely wife. Upon his return, Depp joins forces with Helena Bonham Carter, baker of "the worst pies in London" and together they cook up a scheme to hack up lawyers, businessmen and judges and bake them into meat pies. Yum. Warning: Many throats are slit in the course of the movie, but hey, it's all in fun. A terrific movie for anyone, like me, who likes their Christmas pudding dark.
Things to love about this movie: The fabulous look of old London, Johnny Depp's performance, Ed Sanders' sweet singing voice, Tim Burton's marvelous direction
Things to hate about this movie: Can't really think of any.
Pleasant surprises: Everyone sounds OK singing (even Timothy Spall -- who knew).
Unpleasant surprises:Johnny Depp wasn't even nominated for a SAG award.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment