Sad, Strong, Unsteady

Rating: 6/10 (28 November 1998)

Edward is a rare kind of movie. But then, it's been said that Tim Burton is a rare kind of director, and I'm happy to say it's the truth. From the glaring pastels and stripes of Suburbia to the dark, melancholy grounds of The Master's castle, we get to see a story of contrasts and comparisons, a look at the human in the monster and the monster in all of us. There's a serious moral here. And that, in the end, is a problem I have with this movie--it's very heavy-handed and allegorical. As the movie concludes, the viewer is smacked by hatred and coincidences that turn the world against the 'monster' that is Edward; you watch as even with all the love in the world, things simply don't always work out. The closing is possibly one of the saddest things I've ever seen in my life, and I've seen a lot. Johnny Depp pulls in a startling performance as Ed, and there's cameos by the Master Of The Macabre, the late Vincent Price. Not a bad flick, no, but nothing I long to see repeatedly.