Film Review: Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Few Hollywood film makers embody the ethos of “style over substance” as much as Tim Burton does. Thankfully, Burton also possesses rich imagination and talent to put its products on screen in ways that would make his film interesting even when their substance leaves much to be desired. And when there is actually some substance in Burton’s films, results are truly remarkable, like in the case of his 1990 romantic fantasy film Edward Scissorhands.

The plot, framed as a story grandmother tells her granddaughter, begins when Peg Boggs (played by Dianne Wiest), cosmetic products saleswoman, leaves her suburb after unsuccessful attempts to make sale among her neighbours and decides to venture towards nearby, apparently abandoned, Gothic-style mansion. There she finds a strange looking young man named Edward (played by Johnny Depp) who has large sets of scissors where his hands would supposed to be. Through flashbacks it is revealed that Edward wasn’t born, but actually created by eccentric old inventor (played by Vincent Price) who died before having him finished and provided proper arms. Despite his unusual looks, Peg takes pity of Edward and decides to bring him to suburban home and family. Edward, who is curious but harmless, causes a lot of attention in neighbourhood and later wins hearts and minds with his skills of gardening and hairdressing. Things, however, change when Peg’s teenage daughter Kim (played by Winona Ryder) returns home after school trip. At first scared by strange addition to her home, she begins to understand him, while Edwards develops romantic feelings for her. Unfortunately, Kim’s arrogant boyfriend Jim (played by Anthony Michael Hall) feel jealous and starts series of events that would end with misunderstandings, violence and tragedy.

Edward Scissorhands is often considered to be the best film in Burton’s career. In any case, it is his most personal. The basic plot of the film was in many ways inspired by author’s growing up in suburban Burbank, California during 1960s during which he was considered by his neighbours and peers as “weird” outcast. Character of Edward was unmistakably Burton’s alter ego and was further developed through good script by novelist Caroline Thompson. The plot was further refined by taking the bits of various tales of outcasts from Romantic and Gothic fiction, including Classic Hollywood horror films among the most noticeable is James Whale’s 1931 version of Frankenstein. This deeply personal vision was brought at the screen when Burton was at the top of his career, after enormous commercial success of Batman. This allowed Burton to get large budget from 20th Century Fox together with creative control which was unusual for Hollywood directors at the time. He has put those resources to good use and also gathered many great talents – production designer Bo Welch who created bizarre worlds of suburbia and Edward’s castle, costume designer Colleen Atwood who made suburban character look as colourful as Edward, special effects expert Stan Winston and, finally, composer and Burton’s old associate Danny Elfman who delivered a recognisable yet original and effective score.

The most important element of the film was, however, the cast and, naturally, the actor in title role. Johnny Depp, who was at the time trying to discard image of teen idol based on 21st Jump Street, embraced this unusual and demanding role with great vigour and enthusiasm. The role not only demanded that Depp stays under heavy makeup for much of production, but also to find the way to build strange but likeable character with more pure emotion and less talk. Long preparation, which included studying performances of silent era stars like Chaplin, paid off and Edward Scissorhands represents one of the best roles of his career. With it he has built reputation not just as great actor but also as someone willing to take risks and play quirky, unusual characters that would later build his reputation and bring him loyal fandom. Depp’s performance was in many ways augmented by presence of Winona Ryder, young actress who played character completely different from the one she had played in Burton’s earlier film Beetlejuice. Kim is here presented as “normie”, a girl that embodies “proper” suburban values, wears “proper” clothes, has “proper” hairstyle (providing Ryder one of her rare roles where she was blonde) and has “proper” romantic life by dating typical high school jock. Her character is introduced gradually, but nevertheless quickly transforms in romantic heroine and person who begins to understand and sympathise with charming stranger. Performances of Depp and Ryder benefited from their widely publicised romantic relationship in real life, which undoubtedly helped their on screen chemistry. The rest of cast was also good, especially Kathy Baker and Boggs’ over-sexed neighbour and Dianne Wiest playing one of the most kindhearted characters of her career. Fans of Classic Hollywood would probably appreciate Vincent Price in his last role, although the actor was quite frail during production and, in light of that, his character’s death scene looks quite moving.

Many interpreted Edward Scissorhands as semi-autobiographical film and Burton’s allegorical self-portrayal as misunderstood artists, a motive that he would further use later in Ed Wood. Film works on that level, just as it effectively mixes various genre. It begins as fairytale, turns into comedy taking satirical stabs at suburbia in the middle and, finally, becomes melodrama with increasingly dark and violent overtones near the end. There are some that might have issues with character of Edward being unfinished in script just as he is unfinished in the plot. There are many questions about him that are left unanswered, including whether he is human, robot or something in between. Some might dislike violence near the end that would make this film inappropriate for younger viewers that would have actually liked it. Despite that, Edward Scissorhands made very good results at the box office and earned critical accolades. Most of them were quite deserved and this film can be recommended even to those viewers who aren’t among Burton’s or Depp’s fans.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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