Sweeney Todd Movie Review Thread- Page 16

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 10:37pm

Watch Helena in the climactic scene of SWEENEY--her "I love you/I'd be twice the wife she was" isn't about passion or desperation or pain--it's about straining hopelessly for notes. (I think that's why Depp killed her--to get away from that SOUND.)

- OH PLEASE. Angela Lansbury sang it the same way in her head voice. Patti used MUCH MORE emotion than Angela during that part. Other Lovetts besides Patti who also gave the "I love you" great emotion were Dorothy Loudon, Julia McKenzie, and Karen Mann. They really gave off the desperation and pain.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 10:41pm

PS. Roquat. WE GET IT. You hate Helena Bonham Carter. You've expressed this a countless number of times. Obviously you've had problems with all of her film performances. Get over it. Stop trying to make her fans here feel like crap for liking her, and enjoying her Mrs. Lovett.
Updated On: 1/2/08 at 10:41 PM

[roquat]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 10:46pm

No.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 10:55pm

I also found her "I love you, I'd be twice the wife she was" lacking. Lovett IS pleading her case to a known murderer, after all...

[roquat]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:15pm

Thanks. I'm just sick of the people contending that that was the only way to play Lovett onscreen. Overplaying it would indeed be a risk, but underplaying to the point of coma doesn't strike me as a solution.

Also, don't you hate people who say "Get over it" all the time? That just means they've run out of arguments...

[shadow44]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 1:15pm

HBC has said in several interviews that her performance was directed by Burton who kept directing her to tone down her performance and not to use her hands. So I can't fault her for the performance.

[Pippin]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 1:32pm

I know you already disagree with what I'm about to say, Roquat, but as far as HBC goes, it's a little thing called subtlety. She is not doing a performance for the stage, she is doing one for the screen. You are just upset because Carter didn't play it how YOU think it should have been played, so you are now committed to trash her performance to anyone who will listen so you can feel somehow superior on this board to everyone who actually enjoyed her performance and understood what she and Burton were going for.

I thought it was a brilliant turn for her, and I'm sorry that you don't see it. Maybe with time and another viewing, you will

But in the meantime, as your opinion will not change, neither will ours, so take it somewhere else, because no one cares, and you are in the minority on this one.

[roquat]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 1:55pm

Get over it.

You have about as much of a sense of humor as Helena Bonham Carter's Mrs. Lovett. Or, as I prefer to think of her--

The Zombie that Swallowed a Choirboy.

Updated On: 1/6/08 at 01:55 PM

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 2:46pm

After a night that consisted of my friend and I getting lost in upstate PA on our way to see RENT at the Academy of Music, we decided to go see a movie, my friend wanted to see Charlie Wilson's War, but I was dying to see Sweeney. So I begged her and to her shagrin, she said if I paid for her, she would go. So we got our tickets and our show was at 10:20, there were I'd say 30 people there. The movie was great: Johnny Depp was surprisingly great as Sweeney Todd and Helen had a interesting voice, but I loved "By The Sea", it was so fancial and full of dreams, it really made me smile. The little boy who played Toby was great during "Nothings Gonna Harm You.." especially toward the end, the last verse, his voice was wonderful, it freaked me out that he was sort of in love with Mrs. Lovett, but I looked it up and onstage the role is cast as a teen or in his early to mid-twenties, so picking a fourteen year old to play him, was an odd choice. I cannot get over Alan Rickman as Snape, I only see him as Snape, so through the whole movie I kept going "Oh Professor Snape, your a bastard.." but he was wonderful as well. I enjoyed the love between Anthony and Johanna and wanted so badly for things to end well for them. The final act of the movie was lovely, and the ending was fantastic. I enjoyed it, though some of the singing could have been better, I really loved it.

[ByTheSea920]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 5:21pm

I already posted this review on the student board, but I figured I'd put it in here too! Plus I've got some other little details to review that I couldn't think of last night.


Oh god, what an AMAZING movie!! It was everything I expected and more! Everything about it was just incredible! Right from the opening sequence, I knew I wasn't going to be disappointed. It was exactly how a Sweeney movie should be. Bloody, artsy, dark, and a little bit trippy.
Yes, it was extremely different from the stage version. But in my opinion, that is a GOOD thing. It was so refreshing to see Sweeney done in a less "over-the-top" way. The fact that they toned down the "Broadway style" aspects of it made the story and characters seem so much more real. If I'm going to be honest, I think I preferred this interpretation of the story over the stage version's interpretation. I know that's blasphemy in the theater world, but I don't care. Ever since I first saw a production of Sweeney, I imagined how incredible the story could be if told in a way closer to the way that the movie interpreted it. Don't get me wrong, I love the stage version. But this Sweeney version just connected with me more, emotionally.
Now into the specifics of things I liked:

*Helena Bonham Carter. I don't care what other people have said about her. I think she played Mrs.Lovett perfectly. She's just how I've always imagined the character! She gave Mrs.Lovett so much emotion and so many layers. She made Lovett such a tragic character. And there were so many moments when HBC was acting that just blew me away. Specifically, during My Friends, when she walks up behind Sweeney. She has so much emotion in her eyes. And another fantastic moment is after she locks Toby in the bakehouse. Amazing. And I got chills in the final scene, when she's pleading with Todd, and her lip is quivering....it was just perfect!

*Johnny Depp. Perfectly cast. And he had a very nice voice, actually.

*The little boy playing Toby. He was ADORABLE. Not to mention he had a very impressive voice!

*By The Sea. HILARIOUS. Sweeney sulking in his ridiculous striped bathing suit was the best scene in the entire film!

*Sasha Baron Cohen. He was hilarious! Another perfectly cast character!

*Alan Rickman. It was like watching Snape reach a whole new level of assholeishness! The scene with the little boy being sentenced to hang...SO VICIOUS. He made me hate Judge Turpin so much. I wanted to cheer when the man died!!

*The style of the film. The color, the set, the costumes...AH, they were all amazing!!

As for Anthony and Johanna, I didn't really mind that they downplayed their relationship. I didn't even notice all that much that Kiss Me was gone. I can understand why it was cut. I think it just wouldn't have flowed with the rest of the film. But I actually enjoyed how they portrayed Anthony and Johanna. It reminded me of Romeo and Juliet, sans the suicide. And yes, Anthony DID look an awful lot like a prepubescent girl, but he eventually grew on me as the movie went on, and by the end I liked him in the role. And he was a very good singer! I loved his voice.

Overall, I think Burton really created a masterpiece with this one! I really don't have any major complaints or critiques about it. I loved every second of it, and I'm already dying to see it again! There were so many little details and things that I loved about it, I can't even think of them all!

And on a sidenote, I found all the blood to be funny! It was SO over-the-top that it became humorous! The Johanna sequence was hilarious! There was so much....spurting! Normally all that blood would really bother me, but the fake style of it made me laugh!

[keen on kean]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 6:01pm

I saw this movie yesterday. As a movie, it is enthralling, beautifully crafted, photographed and consistently dark. Depp is strong and frightening and sings well. His acting is compelling and believable. The supporting cast, including the Judge, Tobias, Pirelli and Anthony, is effective and they all deliver their lines and their songs with clarity if not tremendous complexity. (The young man playing Anthony reminds me of a young Taylor Hanson!). I did not like Johanna's singing voice at all, and thought her acting vacant. The movie as a whole was one of the best musicals I have seen on screen, and the cuts to the score all made sense dramatically and did not particularly trouble me. But I am sorry - Helena Bonham Carter was a very weak protagonist in what usually seems like a two principle character play that became a solo star turn for Depp. HBC is physically appealing as a Depp companion, but she cannot sing, and she is expected to be a singer in this role. Every time she sang her face went awfully blank, and since she was underplaying the role anyway, nothing was being communicated. I think her shortcomings derailed the movie a little but not enough to ruin its overall power. If I were assigning star ratings, I would give it four out of four, with an asterisk for HBC.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:38pm

And on a sidenote, I found all the blood to be funny! It was SO over-the-top that it became humorous! The Johanna sequence was hilarious! There was so much....spurting! Normally all that blood would really bother me, but the fake style of it made me laugh!

What you said. I wasn't the only one giggling in the theater.

I liked HBC. Uh oh!

[hermionejuliet]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:59pm

I enjoyed HBC- I think her acting had many layers, and he emotions for Sweeney, Toby, and about the situation were amazingly clear. I agree that her singing voice was below par, but her interpretation of the character made me over look that. To be honest, I believe she deserves an award for this performance.

Depp's charaterization was great. I've seen the movie several times now, and I always notice something different every showing.

But honestly the one thing I can't get over is the beautiful orchestrations. They are fantastic and beautiful.

It seemed like there is a good repeat audience for the film. There were several people in the theater with Sweeney shirts on etc.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 8:22pm

Several people actually applauded after a couple of the songs including "A Little Priest" and "Epiphany."

[hermionejuliet]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 9:37pm

"Several people actually applauded after a couple of the songs including "A Little Priest" and "Epiphany.""

The music really entices you to do so. It's so epic. --- oh, I agree about Johanna, I'm not that big of a fan, but the vacant expressions could have been a result in being locked in a room and fawned over by her guardian. She's kind of like a porcelain doll. That's the only way I could justify the character interpretation. She is beautiful though.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 9:54pm

I saw the movie today for the second time. I love what Helena Bonham Carter does with Mrs. Lovett. She isn't an accomplished singer, that's clear -- but to me, her performance as a whole is stunning. I very much liked Johnny Depp's Sweeney, but I didn't feel watching him as though I was watching something I hadn't seen before. Helena's Mrs. Lovett, on the other hand, is almost...revelatory. Her take on the character is so different, and so much more sympathetic, as to make me see the piece in almost an entirely new light. The most intriguing dynamic for me was the relationship between that Toby and Mrs. Lovett. I also think she plays the humorous scenes incredibly well.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 9:56pm

Siren - now that you mention it, perhaps the only scene where I related to HBC at all was "By the Sea." She was trying so hard to visualize her fantasy life with Mr. T, and it just wasn't working!

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 9:59pm

By the Sea is fantastic on so many levels.

[Brick]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 10:02pm

"- OH PLEASE. Angela Lansbury sang it the same way in her head voice. Patti used MUCH MORE emotion than Angela during that part. Other Lovetts besides Patti who also gave the "I love you" great emotion were Dorothy Loudon, Julia McKenzie, and Karen Mann. They really gave off the desperation and pain. "


lJay889, THANK YOU!! I agree that I wish Carter had the vocal power to really throw herself into that moment, yet most Lovetts don't - including Lansbury. Frankly, it's quite high. And the way Sondheim phrases it doesn't help. That said, I LOVE it when an actress can! Loudon even spoke (well, shouted) that part of the line, either because she couldn't get her voice up there by that point in the evening, or because she would have had to flip and she wanted to keep that choice. LuPone's Lovett wasn't popular on this board, but I felt she nailed the moment, as did some of the other ladies you've listed.

[shadow44]

Posted: 1/15/08 at 3:34pm

So .... Should Tim have got a Golden Globe for best director? Did the film deserve the two Golden Globes it got?

[sally1112]

Posted: 1/21/08 at 9:12pm

Love it!!

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/21/08 at 9:28pm

I posted my review here about an hour ago, and I don't see it. I guess I'll try again.
I never saw the stage version, but I didn't like the film. For me, there was too much blood and gore and it was hard to watch. Also, there was the lack of any humor or lightheartedness, which I'm told is in the show.

I felt sick after watching it. I guess on the whole it was too dark, too bloody, too serious.

the good-Johnny and Helena. I know they can't sing on the broadway level, but what they did was acceptable for me in the film. I thought HBC's take on Mrs. Lovette was just right. Very understated but strong. She had a little humor in her portrayal. Depp didn't but he's an excellent actor and handled this quite well, as mean as he was.

Alan Rickman-I always like him. Even though he just couldn't sing at all!

So-in general, I liked the cast but not the film, if that's possible.

The people I saw it with said I should see the stage version. One of them sent away for the dvd of the original cast for us to watch. I may not though, because I'm not fond of the basic story line.

Updated On: 1/21/08 at 09:28 PM

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 1/21/08 at 9:33pm

By the Sea is fantastic on so many levels.

True that.

[roquat]

Posted: 1/21/08 at 11:08pm

Jane2--Watch the show. It's a completely different animal.

Just trust me on this.