EDWARD SCISSORHANDS
A film review by Malcolm Austin
Copyright 1990 Malcolm Austin
I saw EDWARD SCISSORHANDS last night at the Ziegfield theatre is NYC. (A *great* movie theatre in terms of picture and sound quality.) Here are some quick impressions, if you are deciding whether or not to see it.
ES is directed by Tim Burton, whose credits include BATMAN, BEETLEJUICE, and PEE-WEE HERMAN'S BIG ADVENTURE. The film is great visually, and Danny Elfman has contributed a good, not-just-Batman- reedited score. The plot is quite weak. Winona Ryder looks about as bad as she possibly can (which isn't very) in a blonde wig.
The bad news is that the story is kind of limp. But the film looks great. This is more than the costumes and sets--it is also how the scenes are put together, how the characters behave, and where the camera is and how it moves.
A truly fine movie needs several strong elements--the script, direction, and acting must *all* be good, and the producers need to have sufficient resources in money and technical types to create the sort of film they want to make. It doesn't have to be a lot of money, depending on what they want to do, and how clever their people are.
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS is not a truly fine movie. The only thing that works really well here is the visuals. The acting is professional but nothing more, the story fails to convince even in its own "fantasy" genre, and there is very little originality in what the plot contains, or how it unfolds.
If you only see one film this year, don't pick this one. But a film does not have to be truly fine in order to be worth seeing. If you enjoyed THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN, you will almost certainly like this movie. Warning for parents though, it contains somewhat more violence than MUNCHAUSEN.
It is easy to compare Tim Burton to Terry Gilliam (JABBERWOCKY, TIME BANDITS, BRAZIL, MUNCHAUSEN). Their films have similar strengths. Burton is somewhat more childlike and carefree in his imagination, and Gilliam is significantly better at moving the plot along. Maybe he just has a better editor.
Among Burton's other films, I would say that EDWARD SCISSORHANDS is better than BATMAN, if you take away Nicholson's performance, and not as good as BEETLEJUICE.
Sorry for the rambling nature of this review, but I am pressed for time, and am trying hard to avoid spoilers. To sum up, I enjoyed it purely for the look of the movie. It has little else to recommend it, but what more do you need?
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