Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street by James Ellaby

It's fairly rare for a star actor and a director to work together on more than a couple of films, with Martin Scorsese (with Robert de Niro and subsequently Leonardo di Caprio) one of the few major directors to seem to favour casting an actor as the lead in several of his movies. You'll often get the same general supporting cast showing up, but there can't be many partnerships between actor and director as prolific and artistically successful as Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.

Burton has always brought the very best out of Depp, from his career-making turn as Edward Scissorhands to the endearing Ed Wood to the cowardly antihero Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow. After a slight break they team up twice more in quick succession, with Depp in freakish form again as Willy Wonka in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and playing the lead in Corpse Bride. Given that he's been busy with the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise, it's testament to the relationship between actor and director that they have now teamed up again for Sweeney Todd.

In many ways, this is arguably Depp's best performance for Burton since he tottered around the screen with scissors for hands, and it is certainly his most challenging. Not only does he have to sing a lot - after all, this is an adaptation of a musical and is packed full of songs, in case you hadn't guessed that from the slightly deceptive TV trailers - but he also has to largely act using his body language more than what he says or sings.

He plays a barber called Sweeney Todd, who returns to dark and grimy London after years spent at sea after being cast into exile by an evil judge who wanted to steal his wife, who is now dead, while his baby girl has been brought up as the judge's ward. Todd swears revenge and would also quite like to rescue his daughter, though this is quite a way down on his list of vengeful priorities. Blood, murder and plenty of throat-slitting ensues as the Demon Barber Of Fleet Street wreaks his terrible revenge upon, well, everyone he meets pretty much.

In such a dark tale, Depp doesn't get to play up to the camera with any of the quirky mannerisms of Wonka or Crane, and he spends a lot of time not really saying anything at all. Like a brooding and bitter Edward Scissorhands, Todd is all about subtle facial expressions and body movements, as well as the odd balletic flourish, with his bloody razors replacing Edward's scissors. When he does explode into life, most notably during his 'epiphany' scene, Depp delivers a powerhouse performance that is up there with his best onscreen moments.

It's not all about him of course, as Sweeney Todd is really the work of two creative talents. Stephen Sondheim's 1979 musical provides the version of the Todd story that Burton uses, as well as the songs, and it is surprisingly dark and grisly for someone most famous for West Side Story and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. And you certainly couldn't imagine anyone better suited to taking it to the big screen than Tim Burton, who makes a grand job of bringing it to life with his usual flair for visuals and atmosphere.

While the story and the action are certainly comfortable ground for him, it was a risk for Burton to make a musical, and it's hard not to feel slightly discomfited when Jamie Campbell Bower as romantic lead Anthony Hope starts to sing the opening tune No Place Like London, but these fears are cut short when Depp walks into picture as Todd and cuts through the treacle with more downbeat lyrics. His singing is hardly classical standard, but he delivers it with panache and emotion, so any deficiencies are at worst unimportant and at best effective in building the character.

With Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Sacha Baron Cohen providing the English talent and all singing very well, Sweeney Todd works as a musical AND a Tim Burton film, which is quite an achievement, particularly as it is a project that had passed through a few other directorial hands before he picked it up. It will still appeal more to Burton fans than musical fans, who will probably find it hard to stomach the blood and the cannibalism, but is a triumph for all involved and probably the director's best effort since Ed Wood.