A Beautiful Fantasy Classic

Rating: 10/10 (22 September 2009)

I've been on a Tim Burton binge for a couple of weeks and just finished watching 'Edward Scissorhands' after not having seen it for over 15 years (!). I have been depriving myself of a wonderful film and am happy to have rediscovered its magic.
As with all Burton films you have to suspend disbelief and simply enter his world. For instance, it makes no sense that there should be an ancient Gothic castle on a mountain on the outskirts of a Florida suburb, or that a Frankenstein's monster like Edward should be so human, yet, apparently, immortal.
There are more levels to this film than meets the eye and I must watch it over and over, that is clear to me, and delve deeper into the visionary imagination of Tim Burton.
Johnny Depp is deeply moving as Edward, his facial expressions and the slightest movements of his scissor hands leave most actors in the dust, even when unencumbered with such foreign objects attached to their bodies. And I loved seeing Dianne Wiest in this film playing Winona Ryder's (Kim's) mother Peg. She is sweet and deeply kind without being saccharin. She is also very funny in the bewildered, innocent manner Wiest is so good at. And Alan Arkin is a great foil as Peg's husband, a long-suffering but non-complaining worker bee, like all the other men in their neighborhood of pastel houses and cars, into which Edward brings his magic, for awhile, by carving topiary in all the yards and cutting the dogs' hair, as well as the housewives'.
Winona Ryder has great chemistry with Depp and their few moments together at the end are heart-rending.
I wouldn't call this a happy movie, because it isn't. There is a murder at the end, for which the viewer can't help but cheer about, that throws the film out of the park if you're looking for a kids' Christmas flick. This is an adult film suitable for more mature children and teens. Especially teens, who Burton always seems to view through a glass darkly.
'Edward Scissorhands' isn't a morality play or a sermon about right and wrong, it's more than those things but Burton doesn't shove it in our faces. He leaves us to come to our own conclusions with what appears to be a straightforward tale of good vs bad; it isn't entirely that either, though good and bad comes into it a lot in the script.
It's a tearjerker to be sure but I never felt manipulated by the film-maker in any way, though clearly he intended the poignance to rise up and overwhelm at the end. The beautiful music of Danny Elfman contributes a great deal, as always with that wonderful composer, to the atmosphere.
'Edward Scissorhands' is now a classic fantasy of American film-making and should be seen by all movie lovers. It's right up there with 'It's a Wonderful Life' but without the 40's schmalz.
One of Tim Burton's best.