The film follows a barber named Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp), unfairly sentenced to hard labour in Australia after the corrupt and perverted Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) seizes his young wife. Now Barker has returned to London, now calling himself Sweeney Todd, and is bent on revenge. With the aid of Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) who owns a pie shop under Todd's flat (and claims to sell “the worst pies in London”), Todd sets himself up at his trade once more and prepares to exact his revenge.

Fusing dark humour, sinister performances and truly stunning art direction, “Sweeney Todd” is a cinematic tour de force, a gruesome delight from start to finish. Johnny Depp excels as the titular throat-slitting barber, playing a true “villain” for the first time and creating a sympathetic yet frightening character: driven, obsessive and brooding. His performance is all the more remarkable for his singing which might not be to the standard of the average West End show but is passionate and attractive enough to rise above the tempestuous score. The decision to cast good actors who could sing passably, rather than good singers who can act passably, is one of the film's strongest points, Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall may not be the new faces of pop music but they are certainly familiar and respected faces on film! A pleasant surprise comes from Sacha Baron Cohen, better known to television fans as Ali G or Borat, as a charlatan barber and rival of Todd's, his singing voice is incredible along with his frankly hilarious accents, an added and unexpected treat. Aside from riveting performances from Depp, Bonham Carter and Rickman, the film also benefits from the incredible set designs, costumes and makeup that create the sinister world of Todd's London, painted across the silver screen in a sinister palette of grey, black and blood red. Using CGI to create some of the skyscapes and backgrounds, with coldly realistic foreground sets, the film is visually set for contrasts, a theme picked up in the costumes (Mrs Lovett's and Todd's wild hair, almost monochrome outfits and gothic pallor is contrasted with the more “natural” look of the young sailor Anthony Hope and Todd's estranged daughter Johanna) as well as the music and the plot of the film.

Being a musical, the storyline and the score are practically inseparable; discordant music often heralds a character's distress, but strangely not the murders themselves, which are disturbingly juxtaposed with surprisingly elegant and beautiful music. As for the murders, well let's say this is not a film for the squeamish. Gory title credits fade away into a misleading lull lasting almost half of the film, disturbed only by the tragic back-story of the title character, before finally exposing us to steadily increasing levels of blood and gore, culminating in a fittingly revolting and deeply tragic ending.

Admittedly part of the appeal of the film comes from the “isn't that cool” factor of seeing great actors like Depp and Rickman singing a duet together, and from finally seeing Depp play a villainous character, but thankfully its power extends far beyond that. With it's gothic setting and design, gruesome effects, haunting music and captivating performances, this is a piece not to be missed Highly recommended to anyone who can stomach both musicals and visceral horror!

This small, arty film opens with a split screen that teases you and somehow as it continues to carry the film along with the expert actors, centers upon a seemingly simple plot:

A man and a woman flirt at a wedding reception and weave in and out of time, in and out of the split screen which seems, at first, to establish the action in the present, with the actors' behavior with each other softening, becoming more intimate as they erase the split screen barrier. The device then shows the couple, or what you can imagine was the couple years earlier; often the second screen mimics the action of what is happening in the present. What I find most remarkable about this film, which asks many, many intriguing questions – in addition to the enjoyable ones – such as “will they-won't they end up in bed?” there are the tough queries about the nature of human behavior, what makes us choose one future rather than another, what do any of our choices mean, can we repair past mistakes, how do we survive the passage of time?

Its two-person cast (there are fringe actors such as the bride and groom and the videographer but they are tangential to the plot) and one night spent together remind me of Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset” but this one

Is less narrative than puzzle. Until we know for certain, before the film ends, we wonder

If they have known each other at another point in their lives, and this is brought home beautifully with this split screen shooting of the film that acts like a parallel at times, offers a mirror to the actors, or simply the temptation for the viewer to wonder whether the woman is being coy, has grown somewhat bitter and sad while the man remains fixed in his position that they had known each other well, in “another” life lived within this one.

I found myself riveted to the small screen, waiting for revelations and answers to the provocative questions about love and its possibilities; some are delivered and others, are left for the viewer to ponder. Gabrielle Zevin wrote the complicated script and packed it full of dialogue that is uniquely close to the way women and men speak to each other. Hans Canosa directed, managing the split screen technique masterfully. Their IMDB profiles are short and read, with one small exception, like carbon copies of each other's resumes. I wonder if they are romantically linked. Or simply work magic when they work together.

This is a movie that seems as if it would drag, two people in conversation, for the film's eighty-four minutes. But it is engrossing and deeply thoughtprovoking. Since the film's title is “Conversations with Other Women” but its plot involves a conversation with only one woman, I'm wondering whether that intentional title asks yet another question: do we sometimes change so much in a decade or two that we become other men and women? Or do we not change at all, the journey pulls us along to some unknowable place, some phantom future that ultimately becomes the present?

Check it out if you are the type to enjoy a real “talkie” movie that moves at a surprisingly quick pace; it won't disappoint.

And a day later, I am wondering still. Rent this small gem and see if it hits you the way it grabbed my attention.