E.T. meets Frankenstein (1931)

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2005)

Tim Burton is one of the true auteurs of our time. He manages to put his label on virtually any project he takes on. And this is arguably his masterpiece. Excepting the "Batman" movies, the only other Tim Burton-directed movie that seemed to truly bring out his dark imagination is "Sleepy Hollow." My personal favorite is "Beetlejuice," but that is more for sentimental reasons than anything else.
Johnny Depp is the title character, a Frankenstein monster who has been left in the large, abandoned mansion of an inventor. The mansion sits at the edge of a small suburban neighborhood where the housewives' only function is to spread gossip. Edward is discovered by Peg Boggs, "the Avon lady," after her unsuccessful bi-yearly visit to the homes of all the women in the neighborhood. Edward is brought home to the Boggs residence, and before they get home everyone already knows there's a tall pale man riding with Peg.
The neighborhood is already full of kooks. Kathy Bates eats up her role as Joyce, the neighborhood slut, there's the overweight woman with curlers in her hair whose hobby is to stare out the window and spread gossip about what she sees. And Esmerelda, the neighborhood outcast, who raises hell, quite literally, when she sees Edward.
Bill Boggs is a friendly man who is not above drawing the line somewhere. He just wants Edward to fit in. The Boggs' son, Kevin, is wowed by Edward, and even ventures to take him to show-and-tell. When their daughter, Kim arrives home, it is initially the entrance of someone who couldn't possibly be from the same family, but then we're reminded she's a teenager who has all sorts of inexplicable issues with her family already. For Edward it's love at first sight, or something like that, because being alone for so long, she's the first truly beautiful thing he's seen since he came down. Unfortunately, she's already attached to Jim, the spoiled bully who initially finds Edward amusing and pathetic, until Kim begins to like him, too, and stops seeing Jim. It's nice that as hateful as Jim is, we can see where it came from. He's the son of filthy rich parents. He never had to worry growing up. But his father won't buy him a car like he wants, he wants him to build character and earn the money himself. They have a top-of-the-line security system. And they are completely absent for the entire duration of the movie. We don't know these people, we just know what Jim tells us, and Jim doesn't think too highly of them, and as a senior in high school, he doesn't understand why they are the way they are.
The cast is first-rate and inspired. Viewed in flashbacks, Vincent Price, as Edward's inventor "father," is a misguided man so fascinated by his own creations. It's no surprise Burton cast him, since he seems to have a great admiration for classic horror, and as one of his later roles, it serves the actor well. As Price plays him, he's not an evil person. He's just too old to finish what he started. Alan Arkin and Diane Wiest are perfectly cast. Their sensibilities as actors complement their characters, as middle-class every-men and women. Kathy Baker makes the most of her slutty character, Joyce. Anthony Michael Hall, for those who know John Hughes' films, might be the most surprising. Looking back at his dorky beginnings, who would have expected Hall to ever be so menacing? And then of course there's Johnny Depp. This is, I think, the movie that made him known, although he didn't rise to star status until 2003 with the character of Captain Jack Sparrow. Depp doesn't say much, but it's in his face and body movements that touches people. He is a tragic figure. He comes into the neighborhood like E.T., a freak with a heart of gold, but he's forced out by a mob of people who aren't so much eager to kill him, like Frankenstein, as they are eager to see what becomes of him. The women of the town are the kinds of people who buy tabloids at the supermarket, and so, as long as they don't know, they want to find out.
Tim Burton seems to have made this movie as a critique of suburban life. This isn't "Desperate Housewives" by any means, but a cruel and yet sincere observation of the human psyche, and what happens when everyone finds out.