Sweeney Todd, directed by: Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Sacha Baron Cohen
Rating: R

Dewey Cox, directed by: Jake Kasdan
Starring: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer
Rating: R

Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd. (Courtesy photo)

Two wildly different movie musicals are vying for audiences as the new year begins. The higher pedigree belongs to Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton’s adaptation of the Steven Sondheim-Burt Wheeler 1979 Broadway hit. Johnny Depp plays the murderous title role, with Helena Bonham Carter as his lusty accomplice, Mrs. Lovett. They’re supported by the likes of Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen. Pretty impressive. Surprisingly, Sweeney Todd has performed only moderately well at the box office, in spite of expectedly glowing reviews.

The other musical for your consideration is Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. It’s a purely satirical take on Walk the Line, Ray, and other musician biopics. John C. Reilly (Chicago) assays the role of legendary Dewey Cox, with Jenna Fischer (The Office) as his lifelong love, Darlene. They’re supported by nearly every comic actor working who ever appeared in a film produced by Judd Apatow. Walk Hard has performed considerably worse than Sweeney Todd, in spite of unexpectedly glowing reviews. In fact, it’s a box office dud.

Maybe you can see where this is going. In short: Sweeney Todd is a hollow, soulless bit of fancy-dress grotesquerie. Walk Hard is hilarious. Todd is another step backward for the oscillating fortunes of the movie musical. Cox is a big breath of life for the nearly deceased art of parody.

Now, to be fair, I can’t say with confidence that Tim Burton’s movie is a bad version of the Sondheim and Wheeler musical. I’ve only seen and heard pieces of Sondheim in the past, and it may just be that I have no stomach for his work. If you have enjoyed stage productions of Sweeney Todd, you may be thrilled by the film. I can’t get past the plot, which asks us to excuse endless numb-skulled behavior on the parts of its characters.

Johnny Depp offers more frustration. I think he is—or at least can be—an extraordinary actor. He has become a true icon in the past five years, compiling an inspired gallery of film personas along the lines of Peter Sellers or Alec Guinness. We all wait anxiously to see what he will come up with next. Depp’s Sweeney Todd, unfortunately, is not an inspired character. For one thing, he speaks with the same accent and timber as Captain Jack Sparrow, making him come across as a morose, humorless version of Jack. Depp’s performance ranges from morosely intense to theatrically crazed. There isn’t nearly enough variation. Worse, we simply cannot become engaged by his plight, nor that of anyone else, because the circumstances are so contrived. Even the great Alan Rickman can’t overcome his character’s exasperating lapses in judgment. The only one who comes out okay is Mrs. Burton, Helena Bonham Carter. Her Mrs. Lovett lends the movie its few moments of lightheartedness, however macabre. But mostly it comes down to the music. These aren’t songs so much as clusters of oft-repeated two-line melodies.

The music in Walk Hard is ridiculous, of course, whether it’s the absurdly overt double entendres of “Let’s Duet” or the self-aggrandizing solemnity of the title song. Written by Apatow and director Jake Kasdan, Walk Hard is a decades-spanning cross between the Apatow-produced Taladega Nights and This Is Spinal Tap. It is consistently funny and clever, but after about a half hour you wonder if it can sustain itself for its entire 96 minutes. Then Jenna Fischer arrives on the scene. There is so much warmth and gung-ho comedy spirit between Fischer and Reilly, they lend the film a heart it probably doesn’t deserve. Ultimately, when the movie has a chance to really engage us, it chooses to go for the most extreme humor. I respect the choice, but wish they had made the other. Still, the extent to which Kasdan and Apatow assault the legends of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, et al, is dazzling. After the so-called parody of the epic, date, and scary movies, it’s nice to see some true parody in action.

At the end of Sweeney Todd, our audience walked out quietly, without energy, seemingly ambivalent about their movie-going experience. The theater was empty before the credits reached their midway point. After Walk Hard, nearly the entire audience stayed through to the very end, and even as the screen went black most of us were still chuckling. A kind of spontaneous group discussion took place, as a bunch of complete strangers shared their enjoyment of the movie. No throats were cut, but a lot of stomachs were sore from excessive laughter.

Alex Manugian lives in Sherman Oaks, California, and works for the Cartoon Network. He grew up in Groton and has reviewed movies for Harvard residents for many years.