Now Showing (cert18) Sweeney Todd - TheDemon Barber of Fleet Street. The stage version is gory so it follows that the film is a bloodbath.
In the stage musical the story centers on the character of Sweeney Todd, formerly known as Benjamin Barker, who returns from the penal colonies in Australia, where he has spent fifteen years on false charges. When he learns from Mrs. Lovett, whose meat pies are the worst in London, that his wife poisoned herself after being raped by Judge Turpin (the man who wrongly imprisoned him), and that his daughter is the ward of the same Judge Turpin, he vows revenge. The two become conspirators in a dark plot that results in mass murder, booming business for Lovett's shop, and ultimately tragedy.
In this Tim Burton's film Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) was living a simple, happy life as a barber with his wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly) and their baby daughter when the lust of Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) ruined their lives. The judge had Barker deported to Australia on a trumped-up charge, then raped Lucy, who poisoned herself in despair. Their daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener) became the ward of Judge Turpin.
Many years later Barker, now calling himself Sweeney Todd, returns illegally to England with the help of a young sailor named Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower). He visits the pie shop of Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), an old friend who recognizes him and tells him what happened to Lucy and Johanna. Then she takes him up to the room he used to rent above her shop, where she has hidden his razors under a floorboard. He's profoundly happy to have them back and decides to reopen his barbershop.
On a stroll through the market, Mr. Todd and Mrs. Lovett stop to watch Signor Pirelli (Sacha Baron Cohen), a mountebank barber and hair tonic salesman. Mr. Todd challenges Signor Pirelli to a shaving competition, to be judged by Beadle Bamford (Timothy Spall). (The beadle is Judge Turpin's sidekick.) Mr. Todd wins handily and encourages the beadle to patronize his "tonsorial parlor."
However Signor Pirelli, who once worked for Benjamin Barker, recognizes the man and his razors. He has blackmail in mind: in exchange for half of Mr. Todd's earnings, Signor Pirelli will refrain from exposing Todd's identity to the authorities. Mr. Todd, enraged, kills Pirelli. Mr. Todd and Mrs. Lovett decide to use the body to make meat pies. Mrs. Lovett appropriates Pirelli's purse and hires Pirelli's servant, the boy Toby (Ed Sanders), to help her in the pie shop.
In another part of London, Anthony the sailor has caught sight of a lovely young woman, identified to him as Johanna by a local beggar woman, sitting at her window in Judge Turpin's house. He's smitten. Unfortunately, Judge Turpin has caught sight of Anthony too; the judge threatens him and has Beadle Bamford beat him up. Not content with warning Anthony off, Judge Turpin decides to marry Johanna to "protect her" -- but, he confides to the beadle, she's unaccountably reluctant. (In fact, she's given Anthony a key to the house and is planning to run away with him.) Beadle Bamford, suggesting that the judge will win his ward's heart if he just spruces himself up a bit, recommends a visit to Sweeney Todd. The judge goes for a shave, but just as Mr. Todd is about to kill him, Anthony bursts into the barbershop asking for help in eloping with Johanna. Judge Turpin leaves in a rage and packs Johanna off to an insane asylum to keep Anthony from finding her.
Furious that Judge Turpin has slipped through his fingers, Todd embarks on a spree of butchery, bloodily killing almost every customer who comes to his shop. Downstairs, business is booming: the bodies all go into Mrs. Lovett's meat pies, which are greatly improved by the change of recipe. Meanwhile, Anthony scours the city in search of Johanna. After he finds her at Fogg's Asylum, Mr. Todd advises Anthony to present himself at Fogg's as a wig maker's apprentice in search of hair the color of Johanna's. The ruse works; Mr. Fogg (Philip Philmar) leads Anthony straight to Johanna and Anthony takes her off to the barbershop, leaving Fogg to be torn apart by the remaining inmates.
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