How could a gore-filled musical directed by Tim Burton and starring his most impressive muse, Johnny Depp, possibly be anything but brilliant? The material, the costumes, the buckets of blood - it's a fastball down the middle, and Burton should be able to knock it out of the park. But he doesn't. It's definitely a hit, but more of a ground-rule double. Some fans will drool over it (many already have sight unseen) and forgive both the weakness of the source material and some of Burton's more glaring mistakes, but Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is unlikely to become the beloved goth musical classic that we all hoped that it would when the project was first announced. It's a technical accomplishment, for sure, and should be seen purely for its incredible art direction, costumes, and cinematography, but Sweeney Todd definitely falls short of the very lofty expectations Burton, Depp, and Sondheim fans are clinging onto this holiday season.

Writer John Logan (Big Fish) has taken the three-hour Steven Sondheim musical and pared the story down to its bare essentials. Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) was once a happy man with a wife and child, but he was falsely imprisoned and his family stolen from him. Years later, he returns to London, takes up residence above a meat pie shop owned by Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), and finds an unusual way to get his revenge on not only the people that wronged him and his family, but also the ones who turned a blind eye as injustice was done. Barker changes his name to Sweeney Todd and comes home with a young man named Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower), who falls for the comely lass in town named Johanna. Johanna is being held captive by the nefarious Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), who rules the town with his sidekick, Beadle Bamford (Timothy Spall). Mr. Todd comes up with a vicious plan to get his vengeance, give Mrs. Lovett some business, and even help Anthony save the fair Johanna. And it all comes with a song, a dance, and buckets of blood.

As you might imagine just from the plot description, Sweeney Todd is not going to end with a hand-holding love medley atop a ceramic elephant. This is dark material and, from frame one, you know it's going to end in blood. As more and more of the poor denizens of Todd's 'hood get sliced and diced, and the plot moves us closer to the characters we care about getting the blade, Sweeney Todd never pulls the audience in. To put it bluntly, you'll never care. It's incredibly easy to admire the technical accomplishments of Sweeney Todd. It looks and sounds great. The music, the editing, the costume choices are all without technical flaw, but perhaps that's the flaw itself. Sweeney Todd is a film about vile, damaged people that never feels quite dirty enough. When you're busy admiring the production design, it's hard to truly care about the emotions going on within it. Burton has long been a detached director, but since he opened his emotional side a bit with Big Fish and was somewhat critically derided for getting too mushy, it feels like he's gotten colder, eschewing real emotion for technical mastery. The problem is you need both to make a truly memorable film.

Believe it or not, Johnny Depp doesn't help. Depp has long-been one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood, but, more and more lately, it feels like he's just playing dress-up. Sweeney, Jack Sparrow, and even Willy Wonka are all characters that feel defined by their makeup, hairdos, and costumes. Depp gets buried in the morbid exterior of Sweeney Todd, and we never get beneath his skin like we need to in order to care. He never falters vocally and a merely average Depp performance is still better than what a lot of actors can give at their best, but there's a sense of danger missing from this turn. Edward Scissorhands was scarier than Sweeney Todd because, believe it or not, he felt more genuine. Helena Bonham Carter fares much better, giving the best performance in the film. It's a reminder that she's still one of the best working when she has the right material.

So, how do you sum up Sweeney Todd? Like a lot of Sondheim's plays, it's a mixed bag of pros and cons, but Sweeney Todd is worth seeing for Carter alone, much less the excellent design on every level. Sweeney Todd the character is a troubled man with two sides - the dark killer and the damaged family man. Maybe it's only appropriate that the film about him is a double-edged blade itself.