Johnny Depp is a star. He will pull in the customers and put “bums on seats,” as they say in London. And he is a mainstay (along with Burton’s partner, Bonham Carter) in Tim Burton’s creative stable. But I wonder if Burton could not have found someone with equal star power who possesses a voice equal to the incredibly difficult vocal task of Todd. The other option for Burton was to have pulled back on the orchestral score to not create such a stark contrast between the power of the instrumental arrangements and then thinness of the voices. Those big lush lead-ins should lead into lush singing. They did not, and the drop-off from instrumental to vocal was jarring. Simply put, the music and voices do not match. At least not for me.

Several of the voices are excellent, some surprisingly so.  Ed Sanders is fabulous as the boy, Toby. He’s a terrific young actor with a great voice. And the young man who plays Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower) clearly also can sing well. Surprisingly (although perhaps not, given his gloriously sonorous speaking voice), Alan Rickman does justice to the evil Judge Turpin; Sacha Baron-Cohen is a delight as Pirelli (although they cut one verse from the “Contest” song). In general musical adaptation works pretty seamlessly, however, I did miss the narrating chorus of the stage version, who told the “Tale of Sweeney Todd.” I think the addition of the Greek chorus would have worked well as the mobs, the crowds, the customers. I especially missed them in the “More Hot Pies” sequence in the pie shop.

The other complaint was that I felt that less could have been more in the gore and guts aspect of the film. I had to cover my eyes every time Sweeney slit a throat and the blood started gushing out. It was unnecessary and took me out of the story. Especially at the end, when we really need to feel Todd’s pain, the excessive blood detracts from the tragedy of it and the emotional impact of that moment.

As I’m typing this, I realize how critical I’ve been of the film, but I did like it. And I believe that people who haven’t been exposed to the stage version of Sweeney Todd will like it a lot more than I did. My daughter (a confessed Johnny Depp fan) thought it was great, but she’s never seen the original and she loves Johnny Depp… because he’s Johnny Depp. And I understand. Anything she sees that stars Johnny Depp will be viewed through that filter. 

Go see this movie. Enjoy it. But if you’ve seen the stage version, go in with limited expectations.