Strange, beautiful fairytale from Tim Burton and Danny Elfman

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2003)

I loved this film when I was 11; now I'm 22, I've just bought the DVD and fallen in love with it all over again. In some ways, Edward Scissorhands is an update of the Frankenstein story: an artificial being, created by a mad old scientist, and his attempts to fit into the human world. But there's more to it than that. The actors all give fantastic performances, for example, Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Alan Arkin, and of course, Vincent Price. Tim Burton's amazing aesthetic vision is fully realised here in the contrast between the colourful, sanitised, plastic town, and the monochrome, industrial world of Edward and his creator. It's one of the few films that genuinely manages to be funny and sad in turn, without getting TOO sentimental. Finally, Danny Elfman's haunting music completes the sense of wonder that this film produces. Very highly recommended.