Wick's Review

Summary - Perfect 5.0

Tim Burton’s magical mélange of Frankenstein, suburban farce and teen romance alchemized into a landmark movie. Sweet when you think it’s gonna be scary, sharp where it could have gone sappy, deliciously satiric all the way through, it’s a garden of cinematic delights.

Johnny Depp’s Edward is the perfect embodiment of Burton’s feverish imagination. Rarely do star and auteur match so well as to become inextricably linked.

Fantasy fans, awkward teens (and their parents), not to mention fans of Depp and Burton, should watch this masterpiece at least once a decade. Like Edward himself, it never grows old.

Acting - Perfect 5.0

Johnny Depp’s signature performance cuts deeply to this day. Playing a wounded and wounding man-child, he evokes sympathy and empathy in equal measures, notwithstanding the heavy makeup that obscured his dramatic natural features and the mere 169 words he was given to speak. Plus he earns a few laughs Chaplin would be proud of.

The legendary Vincent Price – in his final role – delivers a perfect performance as Edward’s Dr. Frankenstein-like inventor. His huge moviestar head and dramatic features evoke paternal warmth and creative pride, while his death scene gives up the ghost in grand fashion.

The balance of the notable cast ably hold up the rest of the movie:

• Dianne Wiest’s kindly Avon lady is perhaps the best role of her long career.
• Kathy Baker, looking like Peg Bundy from Married with Children, delivers a delicious turn as a horny housewife.
• Winona Ryder stammers effectively as a confused high school girl, often moving her lips a couple of times before finally coming out with what she’s going to say. The effect keeps her beau (and the audience) on tenterhooks about her thoughts and intent. A word about her appearance: Said to be a natural blond, she looks like she’s got a bad dye job atop her head in this, her only role as a blond.
• Anthony Michael Hall convincingly plays an asshole jock, a malevolent version of the Biff character in Back to the Future.
• Alan Arkin: always a treat.
• John Davidson’s cameo as a TV talk host works as perfect parody.

Film - Really Great 4.5

Tim Burton opens his film with an extended credits sequence, an old fashioned touch that conveys the scale of his ambition. Fortunately his talent matches that ambition. In creating imagery come to life, he achieves cinematic perfection.

Edward Scissorhands mines and amplifies so many pop culture touchstones that it sparkles.

• Punk: Edward’s wounded warrior look serves as a benediction for the punk rock era.
• Suburbanalia: Burton’s disdain for what he sees as the garish conformity of Middle America informs much of his film’s razor sharp satire. His depiction of a pack of conniving desperate housewives anticipates Wisteria Lane by a couple of decades.
• Hair-brained: Edward’s hairdo creations serve as avant-garde incursions into mindless suburbia. The erotic effect he induces in women comes across as a G-rated Shampoo redux.

Edge - Risqué 1.6

Gently risqué.

Reality - Fantasy 4.1

Sure it’s fantasy, but how does Edward eat? Not to mention, how does he take care of his other biological needs? Even if not human, the movie suggests that he handled such matters when on his own. For instance, he seemed to have no trouble dressing himself until entering his adoptive Mother’s home. That he can’t then dress or feed himself is a running joke that becomes a bit annoying after a while.

3 Comments

• Wick Nov 8, 2011 7:37AM

  Regarding BigdaddyDave’s Review
  Solid take on Anthony Michael Hall.

• Wick Nov 21, 2010 12:03AM

  Regarding Wick’s Review
  Thanks MJ. I don’t know if Burton’s sold out or not. He’s always done super big budget movies, just that very few turned out as perfectly as this one, which came at the end of a remarkable three year run. He did Batman the year before Sissorhands and Beetle Juice the year before that. We’re talking one hell of a streak!

  Brings to mind the Stones from ’68 to ’72: Beggars Banquet followed by Let It Bleed and then Sticky Fingers and finally Exile on Main St.

  Nobody maintains that pace for long.

• MJ5K Nov 20, 2010 9:45PM

  Regarding Wick’s Review
  Excellent review, Wick. A well deserved perfect, as well. Films like this and “Ed Wood” truely echo a time in which Tim Burton was a very talented filmmaker. Its a shame he doesn’t make original films like this and instead sells out and keeps coming out with remake after remake. I always enjoy watching this one so it can still give me a concept of a time where Burton was a real visionary.

• Feed
• Movies
• ViewLists
• NewOnDemand