Visually wonderful but emotionally a little hollow

Rating: Null/10 (15 March 2003)

On her rounds in suburbia, Avon lady Peg Boggs spots the old castle at the end of the street that she has never sold to. Upon inspection she meets a young man who lives alone in the castle since the death of his creator. He is a normal boy with the exception that his creator never finished him and in place of hands he has scissors. Peg brings Edward to live with them. Suburbia greets him with curiosity at first then open arms when Edward's scissors turn out to be a gift when it comes to cutting hedges or hair. As Edward begins to fall for Peg's daughter Kim, the community slowly begin to revert to fear of the different.
Considering recently that he failed to really bring any spark of imagination or wonder to Plant of the Apes, it is worth remembering the impact that directors including Burton had and what they did. Burton brought his own brand of weirdness to the mainstream cinema and must be given some credit for it's continued place in the cinema. Of course I do not say he was a trailblazer but his style is quite unique in some respects. Here he owes a nod of respect to David Lynch as it is he who's suburban picture Burton seems to have modelled his own town, although Burton gives his a much more surreal twist and fairytale naivety. The community seems to be standalone as opposed to part of a large city and a castle stands at one end of the street  supposedly unnoticed! The visual design of the film and the unique feel are the main reason to watch this film  it is full of invention as well as well staged cliché. It's hard to describe but the suburbia-hell design are at once instantly recognisable but also inspired, visually everything has a wonderful `other-worldly' feel to it while still being very real.
The plot is pure twisted fairy tale and is really a tale of the odd-one-out teenager if you pare it down to it's bones. It allows for much in the way of strange humour and strange happenings but it doesn't totally succeed to bring enough emotion out of the plot. It has the odd moment here and there which is touching but really Edward is too weird for us to totally get behind  I found myself supporting him but still with a edge of not really getting him. Because so much is made of his appearance and his hands I didn't know much about him and therefore couldn't really feel a lot with him.
Depp is good but is partly to blame for keeping Edward as a thin character, although not many other actors would have even tried to do it so fair play. He is amusing and few people can do weird like he does. Ryder is good as the all-American cheerleader but the real wealth is in the support cast. The support is made up of a list of suburbia stereotypes all exaggerated for humour. Wiest is strong in her role and I found Arkin to be absolutely hilarious in everything he did!
Overall the film looks fantastic and this is enough to justify watching it. It is quite funny and is also weird enough to sustain the interest. Only where it needs real emotion or a strong heart does the film feel a little hollow and incomplete  just like Edward himself.