Friday, December 28, 2007

I went to see Sweeney Todd yesterday. Since the movie was so hyped, I expected to really love it or really hate it. As it turns out, neither was the case. I liked the acting, though it was a little odd how much Alan Rickman's character and the guy who played the Beadle resembled their respective roles in Harry Potter (Snape and Wormtail). Helena Bonham Carter was more able to separate Mrs. Lovett from Bellatrix Lestrange. I was a little sad that they cut the chorus numbers from the show. No "attend the tale of Sweeney Todd/he served a dark and a vengeful god" to be had here. But I thought the boy who played Toby was stellar.

2 comments:

linden said...

ditto about toby. i liked anthony too. and i thought that johnny depp did a pretty dang good job overall, but i do love him and i do think he is awesome at the crazy. and overall, for cutting it down as much as they did, i thought it turned out pretty well. man was it bloody though. so much blood. and i really liked everything HB-C was wearing. duhhhhh. but yeah, same. i think i would see it again, but i'm not totally in love with it, nor totally hating it. hmm.

bdraeger said...

No kidding about Toby. That kid had the best voice in the whole film. I liked him a lot more than I like Toby in the Cariou/Lansbury recording I have. For me, the stage version has a balance between the wild, insane, in-your-face scary and the quieter, melodic, haunting quality. The film leaned more toward the melodic side that I might have liked, but that might be Tim Burton's style. I LOVED 'By the Sea', though. Hilarious.