Wednesday Jan 2, 2008 (6pm)
Even if you don't care for the self-important saccharine of composer Stephen Sondheim; even if you claim a chemical aversion to the movie-musical genre; even if you profess disdain for the indulgences of director Tim Burton; and even if (and this is the biggest caveat of them all) you experience that rare immunity to the great beauty of Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd cannot be dismissed out of hand. The film adaptation of the now-legendary Broadway production about a barber (Depp) out to avenge his wife and child by, uh, making meat pies out of wrongdoers with his accomplice Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) is great, oddly not-guilty fun.
– Lisa Rosman