The “man” aka Johnny Depp plays Sweeney Todd who’s real name is actually Benjamin Barker who is a barber. We join our protagonist as he is coming back to London. What took him away from London you ask? Well…a vicious judge (played by the awesome Alan Rickman) was after his wife Lucy. In order to get her….he had Mr. Barker exciled for 15 years for a crime he did not commit. While back in town as Sweeney Todd and looking completely different…he stumbles upon the lovely Ms. Lovette (played by the ever so talented Helena Bohnam Carter). Ms Lovette owns a pie shop. They get to know each other and Ms. Lovettes sets up a barber shop above the pie shop and she becomes his land lady. He and Ms. Lovette go and witness a display in front of town that is promoting a great after shave elixir. Then, the guy who is selling the stuff (Mr. Pirelli played by the amazing Sacha Baron Cohen) comes out and challenges Sweeney to a shaving contest. Sweeney ends up winning and gets reconnected to his razor blades. But, something is missing. Mr. Todd (or Mr. T as Ms Lovette called him) wanted vengeance for everything wrong that was done to him. Since Sweeney was so good in the contest, Mr. Pirelli comes to his shop and asks for a shave. The guy ended up knowing a lot about Sweeney Todd’s days as Benjamin Barker and blackmails him. This enrages Sweeney and he ends up slitting Mr.Pirelli’s throat. Ms. Lovette finds out and is freaked out at first. But then, when the problem of what they are going to do with the body is addressed…Sweeney and Ms. Lovettes get a “brilliant” idea. Since the cost of meat is so high where they live…they decide to take the corpses of anyone who asked Sweeney for a shave and use them in mince meat pies. Things go well for a while. But then, Tobi(the ward of Mr. Pirelli whom Sweeney and Ms.Lovette kind of adopt after he dies) developes this protectiveness for his “mom” Ms. Lovette. Ms. Lovette,feeling the same way, decides to let Tobi help her in the pie making house. She teaches him how to do it….and lets him do it on his own. He eats one of the pies and discovers a finger in there and discovers the truth about what is being used for meat in the pies. This freaks him out naturally and he ends up going “incognito ” or “in hiding”. As you can imagine, Sweeney and Ms. Lovette end up developing this small connection and end up getting married. But in the begining of the movie she tells him that his wife Lucy posioned herself after being raped by Judge Turpin. When in fact, she ended up being the old lady trying to warn people about Ms Lovette and her shop. Lucy ends up coming into the barber shop and Sweeney kills her. When they go down to the pie house to check on Tobi (who was the practicing making the pies)….they discover that Mr. T had in fact killed Lucy and that Ms. Lovette knew all along and didn’t say anything and basically lied to him. Sweeney and Ms. Lovettes have one more song and dance number down in the pie house and he ends up throwing her in the incinerator used to bake the pies. Sweeney is so distraught about the fact he killed Lucy…but…all comes to an unfortunate end for Mr Todd is killed by Tobi in the end by his own razor blade. Some other tidbits……the vicious judge ends up taking care of Sweeney’s daughter Joanna (played by the lovely Jayne Wisener) and she ends up falling in love with a loyal associate of Sweeney’s
(named Anthony played by wonderful Jamie Campbell Bower) who journeys back with him to London. The judge does not like that and tries to “marry” himself off to Joanna. But, Joanna won’t hear of it. Nothing is said of what happens to her or Anthony……but as you probably figured out….Sweeney gets his revenge on everyone who wronged him….including the judge.
I found it ironic that Sweeney died by his own razor blade and Ms. Lovett died by her own oven.The symbolism and image of Sweeny’s blood dripping (or rather flooding) all over Lucy is something that I thought was powerful and showed the love and connection Sweeney and Lucy had. Johnny and Alan worked so well together and “Pretty Women” is actually one of my favorite musical numbers in the show. My favorite was ” Pirelli’s Miracle Elixer” sung by Johnny, Helena, and amazing Ed Sanders (the adorableTobi). Helena and Johnny worked so well together and had such great chemistry. And as far as the amount of blood…for me…there has to be just the right amount and not too much. I am very picky when it comes to my horror or rated “R” movies…….and I am happy to say, that in my opinion, this movie could have been worse in terms of graphic violence. And what is amazing is I only heard 1 curse word throughout the whole show and it wasn’t even the word movies get rated “R” for.I was suprised that everyone in cast can actually sing…I mean…really sing. The songs were fantastic and over all, the movie was pretty good and is definitely worth your time. Congrats to the cast and crew for making a great movie.
