In this version, Sweeney (Ray Winstone) is a well-regarded barber/surgeon, though keeps to himself. His surgery knowledge appears to come from some real education and experience and he is not a "butcher" type. The film does show us he has a killing urge that comes and goes, and while sometimes he is able to control it, he does slash a few throats of some high and mighty customers.
One day he sees a woman faint in the streets, and Sweeney helps her. She is Mrs. Lovett (Essie Davis), who works at a meat pie shop. Later Mrs. Lovett comes to Sweeney for a medical procedure. She thanks him by baking him a meat pie and comes to trust him. As the film progresses, their friendship and romance grows. A young policeman (Tom Hardy) who's been shot is brought to Sweeney, and later he brings a thief who has been injured. Sweeney and the policeman have a respectful friendship. A man from Sweeney's past blackmails him (David Bradley), and a boy from the poorhouse is chosen to work for Sweeney. There is also a blind police chief (David Warner) who has conversations with Sweeney. So through these interactions with all these characters we see different sides of Sweeney.
The film has many elements to make the characters human yet flawed, and not just the stylized caricatures we know from the Sondheim play. For instance, Sweeney helps Mrs. Lovett break free from her abusive husband, then funds her opening of her own pie shop, to be independent. He brings her "meat" and when a customer is too romantically involved with her, suggests he come by for a shave. Sweeney continues to provide this mystery meat, but of course he finally trusts her enough/loves her enough to admit his deeds. At first she is shocked, but her growing wealth and the admiration of male customers seduces her to accept it, and she even begins sending men to Sweeney, for her own means. Sweeney first fights his killing urge, and the killing becomes easier as he thinks of it as helping Mrs. Lovett, but he realizes he is in denial of what it is, of who he is.
The script does show how Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett start out as pretty decent people, in spite of all the bad stuff that has happened to them in their lives. Both characters end the story truly wanting to have a better life in one way or another, whether that is a renewed life or something to end their pain.
Suffice it to say there are a lot of of throat slashings, but Sweeney as written, and Winstone's portrayal, makes him a very sympathetic character despite being the knee jerk description of a serial killer. I can't recall that the character made any excuses for having done what he did, which many people with his background could have done--he has a pretty tragic backstory of child abuse and what happens to poor people of those times. He is also a well-rounded character, but like I said, also flawed, such as spying on Mrs. Lovett's romantic interludes with other men (which are not always "romantic") but also arranging that one of his victims is found so that he could be respectfully buried.
Winstone's performance also reminded me how men could also be repressed sexually, and not just in a creepy Norman Bates kind of way. The supporting characters all have a role in the road of the plot and helps to form the Sweeney Todd character for us, showing us how others view the public face he shows to them, as well as allowing us to see for ourselves how Sweeney behaves and us forming our own opinion. During this review, I realized how much story was packed into this, although it is only a standard feature length movie, at about 90-100 minutes.
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