This review was already published by me at https://tinyurl.com/3ymzx7h.
As a kid I remember reading the tale of Beauty and the Beast. Where in the youngest and most beautiful daughter of a prosperous merchant, meets a Beastly looking person, and slowly begins to fall in love with him. And as in all fairy tales, the Beast turns out to be a handsome young man, under a curse, who regains his original self, thanks to the Beauty’s selfless love. The moral of the story was that Beauty is always Skin Deep, and it is only the inner beauty that really counts.
Edward Scissorhands was a reworking of Beauty and The Beast fable, into a modern day American suburbia. The Beast here is Edward( Johnny Depp), a misdirected creation of a crazy inventor( Vincent Price), who dies before he could complete his work, leaving him with misshaped hands, that have a scissor like shape.
Edward is discovered by Peg Boggs( Diane Wiest), a not too succesful Avon saleswoman, who comes to his mansion on the hill. Taking pity on his rather strange appearance, she adopts him into her family, which includes her son Kevin and her daughter Kim( Winona Ryder). Though most of Peg’s neighbours, dont take to Edward kindly, they are thrilled, with his hedge clipping and hair cutting skills. There are however people like Esmeralda, a religious fanatic, and Jim, who happens to be Kim’s boyfriend and a real jerk.
Tim Burton again explores the feelings of alienation through Edward Scissorhands character. Part Frankenstein, part Forrest Gump, Edward is a person, totally unfamiliar with the ways of the world. He really can’t differentiate between wrong and right, as in when the promiscuous Joyce tries to seduce him, he is merely confused. And he innocently tells his family members. And then she showed me the back room where she took all of her clothes off.
In a way, Edward’s character reminded of Kamal’s in Swatimutyam, a child trapped in an adult body. Tom Cruise was supposed to play the character, initially, but he turned it down as he felt Edward’s character was not virile enough. Well, thank heavens for small mercies, as that finally lead to Johnny Depp taking it up. It was a challenge for Depp, as he had to enact the character with minimal dialog, and more with eyes. And he perfoms exceedingly well, in fact Edward Scissorhands was the movie that enabled the transition of Depp from a teen idol into a serious, mature, adult actor.
The Beauty here is Kim, Pegg’s sensitive and beautiful daughter, who finds herself slowly attracted to Edward. Incidentally Depp and Ryder were also dating off screen at that time, and was one of the factors that motivated Burton to cast her as the heroine. She is the one who truly understands Edward. While people around, including Kim’s kid brother Kevin, sees him as a freak, she sees him as a human being to be understood.
But at the core, Edward Scissorhands, is primarily about society’s reluctance to accept people who are not normal. It is a comment about the conformist nature of the suburbia, as can be seen in the climax when the neighbors come like a mob to Edward’s mansion to kill him. For all his grotesque appearance, Edward is really a gentle soul at heart. However at every stage he is misunderstood by the public, for whom he is only a freak and an exhibit. Though in essence a fable, Edward Scissorhands, is also a comment on the rather shallow, nature of society.
The movie again has some wonderful effects scenes, especially, Depp’s make up, is at once scary, but yet, when you see his nature, you feel the empathy for him. One scene that stands out is the one, when Edward, is carving an ice sculpture, and inadvertently creates a snow shower, and Kim comes out dancing under it. Beautifully filmed, and pretty much tender. Again during filming, Burton created the suburbia atmosphere in such a way, as to make them look pretty colorless. Also Burton deliberately reduced the window sizes, as to reflect the paranoia nature of the suburbia people.
Watch it for it’s beautiful love story, the tender romantic moments, and above all the integral message of humanism it carries, about accepting people different than us. And yes also for Johnny Depp.