On many other actors Victorian period costumes would look like, well, costumes, but on Johnny Depp, they cover his physique like a second skin — merging with his persona as if he had a spent his life wearing lace cuffs and with his feet, encased in heavy boots, treading on nothing but mud and cobblestones.
Depp always cuts a strikingly authentic figure, reeking of Victorian decadence and gothic poverty, while most of the cast just look elaborately madeup. To this, Depp always adds a dose of heart-wrenching romanticism, one of the few American actors who can pull this off with ease.
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is Depp's latest (and deepest) foray into stylized Victorian macabre. Teaming up with longtime collaborator Tim Burton ("Edward Scissorhands," "Sleepy Hollow"), Depp in the title role would have sent Vincent Price in his prime into a paroxysm of teeth-gnashing envy. The horror that he generates here is so immediate and real you can almost smell it.