I defy you...

To watch Sweeney Todd and tell me that Anthony doesn't look like a cross between Hillary Swank and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast.

I saw the film Christmas night and thought it was excellent. I think that it should get consideration for, but not win, best picture, and I think that Johnny Depp should get serious consideration for best actor. Helena Bonham Carter was outstanding as well.

I'm not generally a fan of musicals, but the macabre aspects of the story helped it avoid many of my normal complaints. Some of the music did tend to get repetitive, but not too bad, and one benefit of seeing the movie instead of the play was that when two characters are singing separate things it was fairly easy to discern them both. As I've already noted, the acting was fantastic. And of course Tim Burton was the perfect choice for the surreal morbidity of the story. The whole notion of a musical is fantastic, and he provides that fantasy with his colors and sets. It should be noted though, that this includes Sin City-type blood, that spurts in a way reminiscent of the first Kill Bill. And the violence is by no means off-screen.

I did have one significant problem with the whole film, which was the ending. The secondary plot is never wrapped up, and I found it bothersome. I think that the author and/or Burton worried that doing so would detract from the dirk climax, but I believe that there was a way around it. I think that if secondary protagonist had been shown leaving London singing the lines that Todd sings in the beginning of the film that there would have been closure that remained true to the film. (Sorry to be so vague, but I don't want to spoil anything).

All in all I'd give the film about a 9 out of 10. Anybody else seen it? What did you think?