Tonight, I decided to finally watch Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. To be frank, people who are raving over this movie either have never seen the original musical (especially the 1982 version starring Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett) or did not truly appreciate it. I watched the Tim Burton movie tonight and, while I can certainly appreciate that everyone in it were great actors and the movie had some compelling parts, I can say that it came nowhere near to the musical which inspired me when I watched it live at Mansfield University (no, that production did not star Angela Lansbury, sadly) or the 1982 stage performance on DVD since.

I think that the least offensive change I noted was Helena Bonham Carter's portrayal of Mrs. Lovett . Carter transformed the familiar senile character with no sense of right or wrong to a more aware and somewhat dark cynic of a woman. This made the character more aware of what was going around, forcing who to react to it on some more serious level than the frivolity of a more spacy baker. I also think this hurt the sense of utter and mindless devotion to the vengeful barber that is so key to the character. But if this had been the worst of the changes, I concede that it might have actually worked.

I think the greatest offense in the movie was Johnny Depp's portrayal of Sweeney Todd. Todd is an excellent actor and while many of his lines were well developed, I felt that overall, he played the character poorly. For starters, it was difficult to believe that the man on the screen had just spent fifteen years of a life sentence in Australia only to make a harrowing escape, get lost at sea, and finally rescued by sheer luck. I would expect a man who has gone through such a rough life to look far more haggard.

This was further complicated by the fact that Depp played a far more brooding Todd rather than a man who was becoming completely consumed by grief and a compulsive lust for vengeance. While he showed some excellent sparks of anger (the scene where he tossed Mrs. Lovett into the fire was phenomenal, I grant you), he more often seemed to be more prepared to write emo poetry than explode in murderous fury.

Burton's decision to cut the chorus and any number they would do from the movie entirely also hurt the production over all, in my opinion. The chorus plays an important part in the musical in that its numbers help to build up the atmosphere of intensity and fury. Without that aid, this movie did not crescendo well into the final climax, proving the point of the final words of the musical (which again, were cut from the movie):

To seek revenge may lead to hell, But everyone does it, though seldom as well As Sweeny, Sweeny Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

And that brings me to the crux of my problem with this film. Sweeney Todd is not just a musical with a grim plotline. It is a morality play demonstrating in frightening detail the dangers of becoming enthralled by thoughts of vengeance. The main character serves as an example of how one bent on revenge will become so consumed by the quest and the negative emotions involved that one can ultimately destroy everything one holds dear, and ultimately, oneself. In my opinion, while the movie got the grim plotline down, it failed to deliver the ultimate message of the drama with any real force.

I will note, however, that I was pleased with both Alan Rickman's portrayal of the judge and Ed Sanders's performance as Toby. (In all reality, I found the choice to have Toby quietly and quickly slice Todd's throat and walk away one of the more interesting changes, and I wish the rest of the movie had been done better so I could get a clearer idea of how that adaptation might have worked.) I'd like to also compliment Laura Michelle Kelly on her performance as Lucy, though I'll note that they cut way too much out of that role for her to truly show her skill at playing what is actually a surprisingly pivotal role in the whole musical.

This afternoon, I went to a free screening of Anyone and Everyone.  The screening was sponsored by WXII, ImageOut, and the GAGV.

The movie was a one-hour documentary about a handful of families with gay children.  (As an aside, I should note that "children" in this post is used to describe a family relationship, as everyone in the documentary was over the age of eighteen, as near as I could tell.)  Both children and parents alike talked openly about the coming out experience and how everyone responded to the situation and handled the revelation.  The families themselves were from varied backgrounds.  Families from liberal and conservative backgrounds as well as religious families (including one Mormon family) participated in the documentary.  Also, various ethnicities and various geographic regions were represented.

As each family told how their child came out and shared their emotional experiences and how they handled the situations, the viewer got a strong sense of the variety of responses that gay children face when "breaking the news" to their parents.  They even told the heartbreaking story of one young man who was thrown out of his own home upon coming out to his mother.  Fortunately, for that particularly guy, he found a family willing to take him in.

Fortunately, the rest of the families came to some level of acceptance and found a way to maintain their relationships with their children, though the road was not always smooth.  Indeed, some parents admitted to starting out trying to change their children at first.  In fairness, it was good to see one lesbian in the documentary admit that she could've handled the coming out process a bit more tactfully and sensitively.  I felt this helped to remind everyone that we kids make our share of mistakes in the coming out process, too.

One of the most touching parts of this movie for me was to hear some of the fathers' responses.  At least two families told how upon finding out, the father immediately wanted to call their gay son.  The one wanted to reassure his son that he was loved no matter what.  Another wanted to call and apologize, because he realized that he had said some things that were hurtful, especially now that he knew his son was gay.  In a world where most gay men expect our fathers to be the most upset due to our sexuality, it was moving to see fathers who showed such deep concern and compassion for their sons in such an instant way.  The fact that these men were not the type to be accepting right away (both had come from conservative upbringings) merely underscored just how  meaningful their immediate actions were.

After the movie, the GAGV invited some of their local speakers to hold a panel discussion.  I hope to review the highlights of that discussion in my next post.

For those who may be interested in seeing this movie, both screening information and ordering information is available on the movie's website.  (See the link in the first paragraph of my post.)