Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

(USA, 2007, 112 minutes)

In Victorian London, a barber swears revenge on the corrupt judge who exiled him to ravish his wife and take his child as a ward, and will stop at nothing to fulfill it. Very well done film version of a celebrated Broadway musical that gets the macabre, grand-guignol tone exactly right and is quite consistent with its director's usual gothic whimsy, but despite the sincere efforts of all concerned somehow fails to register more than distant admiration for its achievements.

Warner Bros. Pictures and Dreamworks Pictures present a Parkes-MacDonald/Zanuck Company production; film production company, Dombey Street Productions. Starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman; Timothy Spall; and Sacha Baron Cohen. Directed by Tim Burton; produced by Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, John Logan, Richard D. Zanuck; screenplay by John Logan, based on the stage musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and on an adaptation by Christopher Bond; music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; director of photography (DeLuxe), Dariusz Wolski; production designer, Dante Ferretti; costume designer, Colleen Atwood; film editor, Chris Lebenzon; visual effects supervisor, Chas Jarrett.