There's a pink one and a green one and a blue one and a yellow one..

Rating: 9/10 (15 January 2017)

"Edward Scissorhands" is a variation on the Frankenstein legend, relocated from Europe to American suburbia, or perhaps I should say to an exaggerated parody of American suburbia. It is presumably set in either Florida or Southern California, as we learn that the ocean is not far away and it is the sort of place where people can walk about in shirt sleeves even at Christmas. The set designer seems to have been given a brief to produce something straight out of Malvina Reynolds' song "Little Boxes". This is a community whose inhabitants do indeed live in little boxes made of ticky-tacky which (apart from colour) all look just the same, and as in the song there's a pink one and a green one and a blue one and a yellow one..
Dominating this otherwise flat and boring community is a hill crowned by an eerie Gothic mansion, the home of an elderly, eccentric inventor who, like Frankenstein, is working on an artificial human. Unfortunately, the old man dies before he can finish his creation, whom he has named Edward, leaving him with scissor blades instead of hands. (Why the inventor should have wanted to fit Edward with scissor blades in the first place is never explained, but fantasy is a film genre which enjoys a certain exemption from the laws of logic).
The film explains what happens when Edward is discovered by an Avon lady named Peg Boggs and adopted into her family. (Did Tim Burton realise that "bog" is British slang for lavatory?) Although Edward has no hands as we would understand the term, his scissor blades mean that he is an expert at anything involving cutting or chopping, and he is able to earn a living as a hairdresser (catering for both the local housewives and their dogs) and as a gardener, carving hedges into elaborate topiary sculptures. He also has a sideline in ice sculpture.
At first Edward is a popular figure in the neighbourhood, but then two incidents turn local opinion against him. Joyce, a middle-aged housewife, tries unsuccessfully to seduce him, and then goes about saying he tried to rape her. Edward is then arrested after Jim, the unpleasant boyfriend of Peg's daughter Kim, tricks him into taking part in a burglary. Although Edward is released, hostility eventually reaches such a point that he is forced to take refuge in his original home, the old mansion on the hill, where he is confronted by an angry mob led by Jim. (By rights Jim should be grateful to Edward, who has never revealed his part in the burglary, but he is jealous of a growing attraction between Edward and Kim).
The film begins and ends with an elderly woman telling the story of Edward to her granddaughter; at the end it is revealed that the old woman is Kim Boggs, which implies that these scenes must take place around the year 2050. Burton does not, however, give them a futuristic look; indeed, they look very traditional, emphasising the fairy-tale nature of his story.
This is one of my two favourite Tim Burton films, the other being "Big Fish" which also has a leading character named Edward. The two Edwards, however, are very different, as are the films in which they appear, even though both can be classed as fantasies. The Edward of "Big Fish" is much older, a jovial old extrovert, an adventurer and a teller of tall tales, a modern-day Baron Munchausen. "Big Fish" has a happy ending and is outward-looking in the sense that Edward's adventures take him all over the world. "Edward Scissorhands", by contrast, ends poignantly and is inward-looking, with all the action taking place in one small community.
This was probably the film which made Johnny Depp a major star, and in my view it remains one of his best performances. He made the role so much his own that it is strange to think that he was not the first choice; that was Tom Cruise, who was not available. Gary Oldman and Tom Hanks both turned down the part; after seeing the completed film Oldman was to state that he regretted his decision. Depp's Edward, unlike his namesake in "Big Fish", is a shy, withdrawn young man, socially awkward and introverted. (His unkempt hair and pallid complexion suggest an affinity with the Goth movement). For all his awkwardness, however, he is good-hearted and capable of love, something which Kim instinctively recognises. (Jim has never loved anyone or anything except himself). The other notable performances come from Dianne Wiest as the kindly Peg and Vincent Price, in his last feature film appearance, as the inventor, who is seen in flashback. Depp's real-life girlfriend Winona Ryder as Kim makes a sweet heroine, although someone should have told Burton that the lovely Winona looks a lot better as a brunette than she does as a reddish blonde.
"Edward Scissorhands" deals with a number of interrelated themes- self-discovery, the search for personal identity, social conformism, disability, the nature of artistic creativity and the problems of those who are perceived as "different" by society, but fortunately Burton and his co-scriptwriter Caroline Thompson deal with these weighty themes in a relatively light, poetic manner and not in a heavy-handed or preachy one. There is also a fine musical score from Danny Elfman. This is one of those films you can discover more in every time you see it. 9/10