Of all the films that Tim Burton has made in which Johnny Depp plays a tortured, pale, misunderstood man with wild black hair who lives in a garret and wields sharp metal, “Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is one of my favorites. There’s considerably more singing in this one than in “Edward Scissorhands,” and while the earlier film made its dark hero a fish out of water against an unnaturally bright suburban background, this film is thoroughly dark.
While it seems that Burton has made a career out of applying white pancake makeup to Johnny Depp’s high cheekbones, he has more breadth than some of the one-trick ponies I’ve been complaining about lately. He can apply his exquisitely Goth aesthetic to a variety of material, but his films are distinct from one another.
And never has that aesthetic been more successful than in this film. The Oscar win for Best Art Direction was well-deserved. It is a macabre visual feast, draped in black and drenched in blood. But beyond its stunning style, this film succeeded as an actual story.
Depp plays a man returning from years of wrongful imprisonment. To say that he is disappointed to find his wife and child unavailable is a slight understatement and he soon becomes obsessed with the bloodiest revenge you’re likely to see onscreen, aided by the equally pale Helena Bonham Carter. Certain scenes rival the grossest horror movie in their explicit ickiness.
Based on the Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim, this film achieves a tricky balance between theatricality and sincerity. It is easy for these kinds of concepts to go completely over the top, resulting in a parlor trick that is admirable or interesting but not very good.
That is not the case here. The transition to screen works, and the intricate Sondheim lyrical style creates a situation in which it somehow makes sense that characters are singing. This is a gorgeous and affecting addition to the unpredictable contemporary musical film genre.
“Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is currently available to rent.
With all the Jane Austen novels squeezed for multiple adaptations already, Hollywood has no choice but to start making things up and passing them off as her. A fictionalized account based on some facts of her life, “Becoming Jane” never achieves the highs of her own work, particularly not in the script, which too often lazily relies on conventions to create characters.
It also tries to cheaply delight the audience through winking references to Austen’s work, playfully setting them in her own work and expecting us to clap our hands with joy when we get the joke. Which, of course, we do.
The two leads, Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy, are so winning however that this light little jaunt is worth watching. Sure, it’s overly sentimental, and the explanation of how Austen got started as a writer is a little simplistic, but without the Austen ploy this is a romantic story that creates some suspense as to how its characters will turn out. If it wasn’t based on real people and I didn’t already know how they were going to turn out, I would really have been interested.
“Becoming Jane” is currently available to rent.
Contact Asia Frey at afrey@lagniappemobile.com.
Archives
The Reel World
