Fluffy Fantasy That Descends Into Darkness

Rating: 7/10 (27 May 2008)

"Edward Scissorhands" is another example of Tim Burton's rather quirky style of mixing humour with horror (in a Goth sort of way) and ending up with a pretty good movie when it's all put together. When I thought about this movie, one of the things that came through was how heavily influenced by the story of Frankenstein it is. Edward (very effectively played by Johnny Depp) isn't a real person, he's a creation of an unnamed scientist (played in basically a cameo role by Vincent Price.) Like Frankenstein's monster, he's basically isolated. Like the monster, when he's removed from his isolation, he ends up wreaking unintentional havoc. Maybe the most obvious comparison is when the people of the town storm the castle he lives in, much like the villagers stormed Frankenstein's castle. (Much of the action in the town actually reminded me of "Desperate Housewives," with everything happening on the same street and a bunch of women being in the know about it all.)
The first half of the movie is a fun, whimsical sort of fantasy as Edward tries to adjust to life outside his castle. He becomes the hit of the town (especially with the women.) Some of this is wonderfully funny. Gradually, though, the movie turns progressively darker and even violent as Edward runs into more and more trouble. The gradual shift in tone was very effectively accomplished by Burton, and pulled off well by the cast (especially Depp.) It did, however, represent a bit of a problem for me. The opening of the movie tells us that this story is a bedtime story told by Kim (played by Winona Ryder) to her granddaughter about an event long ago, to explain where snow comes from. I wouldn't think of the darker half of this movie as a good bedtime story for a young girl! That caused me a bit of trouble, as did the fact that no one ever explained why Edward had scissors for hands. I understand that The Inventor (as he was called in the credits) died before he could give him hands, but why would he have fashioned these clunky looking scissor-type hands for him in the first place? Unanswered questions aside, I throughly enjoyed watching this (although I thought the fluffy fantasy was more enjoyable than the descent into darkness) and thought that the entire cast really pulled off a collection of good performances. Overall - 7/10