A modern Gothic fairy tale of the American Suburbia

Rating: 10/10 (29 October 2011)

I just love this movie. The critics didn't but I think they really missed the point. When your society is being subtly attacked the way the Tim Burton does it in Edward Scissorhands then you do not want to see it. Visually the movie is absolutely fantastic. The set designs are superb and really draw you into the movie itself. Even though they are so dazzling, it does to subtract from the tragedy of the story. As I have said before, Tim Burton is a masterful storyteller, and not only that, he is able to interweave social criticism into his films as well.
Edward Scissorhands is set in a timeless world where nothing ever changes. In this world lives a woman Kim (Winona Wyder) who is telling a story to her grand daughter about why it snows. The story takes us back to when she was young and her mother brought home a strange man who lived in a house on top of a hill. She does not enter the movie until a little way in when she comes home from a weekend camping trip late at night unknowing that there is a new guest in the house. Her first impressions are of horror because the guest, Edward Scissorhands (Johnny Depp) has scissors instead of hands.
Edward is not a real human but rather the creation of an inventor (Vincent Price). One day he thought of giving life to a cutting machine and thus he turned it into Edward. Unfortunately he died before he could give him hands, so Edward was born, and cannot die, and was left all alone. Unfortunately I cannot describe the intensity of emotions that the movie draws out (even though the brain dead American critics do not understand it) so I will try and explain some of this ideas.
This movie is a love story, but it isn't a typical crappy love story where everything turns out well in the end. It is a tragic love story where those who are in love just cannot express it nor can they get together. Kim is trapped in an unforgiving society that either treats the unusual as a toy, or a deadly enemy. When Edward first comes everybody is using him, but when he is set up by Jim (Anthony Michael-Hall) people begin to change their mind about him. Edward doesn't change, nor has he any evil about him, but rather it is the people around him that make him evil. All Edward does is try to help people and to look after people, yet the prejudices of the society drive him away as a freak.
There is a religious freak in the film, and she hates Edward from the beginning. Edward is different and thus he must be from Satan. She curses him constantly and warns people against him. At first she is rejected because they don't care for her raving, but when they decide to turn against Edward, they use her as ammunition to destroy him.
Yet not all of the people in the society hate Edward. The policeman seeks not to kill him and even says that he is concerned about Edward. The police, which are usually seen as the brutal arm of a disliked government, stands to protect Edward from a mindless mob of people. Edward is quiet, meek, and very loving, yet only a few desire to see this side of him.
Kim is a very important character in the movie. She begins by hating Edward because he is different, but she slowly becomes to understand him, especially how Jim pushes her to love him. Soon she goes from being a blind schoolgirl to a young lady who sees the fantasy of life. The scene where she is dancing in the snow simply removes all semblance of reality, until Jim rudely steps in and destroys it. We are left to assume that Kim never took anybody after Edward left, and this assumption adds to the sadness of the story.