Tim Burton's Best

Rating: 9/10 (17 October 2008)

My favorite Tim Burton movie.
Johnny Depp plays the eponymous eccentric, a patchwork man created by an old inventor (Vincent Price) who dies before he can give him hands. A tragedy of sorts ensues when he's adopted by a suburban American family, only to ultimately discover that there's no place for him in the "normal" world.
"Edward Scissorhands" covers many of Burton's recurring themes: the artist as mad genius; the lack of tolerance for anything different from the norm. But what I like about it is the intense heart beating at the center of the movie. It's full of love, really, and of kind people. The community is quite accepting of Edward at first. Only when they become scared do they fall into their "follow the herd" mentality, but they're not bad people. The character of Edward himself is a miraculous creation, the first sign of what Johnny Depp's idiosyncratic acting choices were capable of. Edward is filled with nothing but kindness and the desire to be kind to others. And the inventor loves his creation the way a father would love his child.
The film is sentimental to be sure, but it's sentimental in the way that a fairy tale is, and it works. Every time I see the scene when the inventor gives Edward a heart made out of a cookie, or the scene where Edward creates an ice sculpture while Winona Ryder dances in the "snow" created by the ice shavings, I have to fight down a lump in my throat.
And let me say that this film would not be what it is without Danny Elfman's marvelous score, one of the best ever written for a movie.
Grade: A