Stephen Sondheim’s all-time-great stage musical falls into perfect hands as director Tim Burton polishes this gleaming gem of the theatre into a movie masterpiece.

Singing and acting up a storm, Johnny Depp gives a cutting edge performance as Benjamin Barker, aka the Victorian mad barber Sweeney Todd, who gets into some close shaves as he seeks revenge on London’s evil Judge Turpin. Taking it all in deadly earnest and trilling sweetly, Depp just couldn’t be better. His 2008 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy is oddly his first major award ever, though unfortunately his Oscar nomination didn’t turn into a win.

Three other performers who just couldn’t be better are Alan Rickman as the sinister Judge Turpin who nurses a secret and dark unrequited passion for Todd’s youn...