God loves a trier

Rating: 9/10 (24 July 2003)

*******some spoilers********
Definitely my favourite Tim Burton film, Ed Wood is a hilarious, touching tribute to cross dressing director Edward D Wood Jr, a man who just wanted to tell stories and make movies, and refused to let the fact that he was by far the worst filmmaker of all time to get in his way. The message in this film, as enunciated by Vincent D'Onofrio's Orson Welles in a scene where Ed meets the great man, is that visions are worth fighting for, even if, as in Ed's case, they're rubbish.
At the heart of the film is the friendship between Ed and fading horror icon Bela Lugosi. Despite the fact that so much of the film is laugh out loud funny, this core relationship is really quite moving. Martin Landau is quite superb as Lugosi, and some of his scenes will leave you close to tears - in particular when he goes cold turkey in rehab, and when he recites his 'atomic supermen' lines from Ed's film Bride of the Monster. The absurdity of the lines only seems to add to their poignancy. That's not to say that Landau doesn't have some screamingly funny lines - "Let's shot this f****r!".
Johnny Depp's portrayal of the eternally upbeat Ed is equally good - his sunny disposition in the face of adversity and point blank refusal to let the constant setbacks he faces get him down will leave a huge grin plastered on your face throughout the film. So maybe Ed's films were terrible, but it's hard not to feel any warmth towards him as we see him directing in drag or going to increasingly bizarre lengths to secure funding for his films. You can't help but share Ed's childlike enthusiasm for his work, as he announces that each take is 'perfect' no matter what went wrong.
The rest of the cast are great, particularly Bill Murray and Jeffrey Jones as members of Ed's bizarre retinue. Patricia Arquette yet again shows her knack for portraying characters which are just impossible to dislike, while Lisa Marie is jaw dropingly sexy as Vampira. Kudos must also go to Howard Shore for his wonderful 50's B-movie-esque score.
Above all Ed Wood is a paean to filmmaking, even as it affectionately pokes fun at 50's C movies. One last thing - anyone who hasn't seen Ed's infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space but who has considered watching it just to see how hilariously bad it really is could do worse than watch Ed Wood, as it lovingly recreates all the best bad bits from all of Ed's films.

Rating - 9/10