Wonderful Weirdness

Rating: Null/10 (31 December 2003)

Once upon a time, there was an Avon lady desperate to make a sale. She decided to try the foreboding black mansion at the perched at the edge of her aggressively pastel suburb. There she met a man dressed in bondage gear, sporting Robert Smith hair and sharp appendages.
So begins the story of "Edward Scissorhands", a marvelously strange film from director Tim Burton. Johnny Depp plays Edward, the scissor-equipped creation of a well-meaning inventor (the legendary Vincent Price) who died before he could finish Edward. Depp brings a palpable sweetness to Edward, who is easily distracted by his wonderment at the world around him. Edward's dialogue is sparing, but Depp speaks volumes with his eyes alone.
A fine performance from Johnny Depp can salvage an entire movie ("Benny and Joon"), but his work is not this film's only asset. The entire cast is strong, and Burton's take on suburbia amounts to a feature-length sight gag. "Edward Scissorhands" possesses enough whimsy, humor, and heart to be considered a cinematic treasure.