On its own...

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 2007)

If someone asked me what my favorite movie score is, I would instantly say Danny Elfman's "Edward Scissorhands". People don't normally recall scores, but there's no way for anyone to forget Tim Burton's film musical introduction and all of its wonderful moments that seem like a dream. "Edward Scissorhands" could be someone's dream: one of those long dreams that you don't want to wake up of.
Caroline Thompson (she's adapted novels as "Black Beauty", the characters of "The Addams Family" and the haunting "The Secret Garden"), a very gifted woman, created the story of this film after having worked with Burton in "The Nightmare Before Christmas"; recently she's written "Corpse Bride". The three pieces are of a fantastic nature and situations that you probably wouldn't encounter at the corner of your house, but then that's the same with almost any Tim Burton film.
Edward is the classic Burton outcast, a character that fits in his movies whether it comes from real life or from a fable. Basically, he's got scissor hands, and when a charming lady (Dianne West 's Peggy) meets him, she takes him with her home to make him part of her family What are the chances? The father (Alan Arkin) is a grumpy and strict man, the son (Robert Oliveri) is a very curious kid; the daughter is the perfectly beautiful teenager Kim (Winona Ryder, of course) who, when meeting Edward, looks at him in a very special way.
Soon, Edward finds his place in Peggy's extremely superstitious neighborhood and gets along with its extremely over the top inhabitants. Because, like any other outcast, Edward has a talent; he can do magical things with his scissors (give form to plants, cut hair for people and dogs), which can be positive and negative, exciting and dangerousYou don't want to see Edward angry or upset; but that's the way he feels because, like Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy, he wants to have real hands.
This desire grows even bigger when he discovers that he has a fundamental reason for it: someone to share his heart with, his love feelings. With all this elements into place, the picture takes us into a short but exciting ride of powerful emotions that change very frequently. And that's where the magic comes from.
Together with Thompson, Burton here shows his capacity of going from one cinematic mood to another in minutes: he goes from humor to sadness, from sadness to romance, from romance to tragedy and from tragedy to total madness. It's true that the narrative may not flow so well, but in "Edward Scissorhands" it is a helpful characteristic, mainly because of what I've just explained.
Besides this, the movie's best moments come from Johnny Depp's extraordinarily understated interpretation, that paved the way for the rest of Burton's iconic main characters (Ed Wood, Ichabod Crane, Willy Wonka) and made him a usual collaborator; Winona Ryder's gift for creating innocence and, yes, Danny Elfman's flawless score.
I watched the movie for the fifth time a few weeks ago. When it ended, a friend said: "It's a masterpiece". It may not be Tim Burton's masterpiece, but it is a masterpiece on its own.