Review of Death Becomes Her (1992) by Jaber H — 20 Aug 2010

This movie could not have been more enjoyable, despite what I said on the Tomatometer. The only reason I dropped this movie a little bit is because I felt the script could have been tightened up some. Overall it was an excellent premise and was very well written with lines aplenty for the four leads. The black satire that this movie drove home was over the top, and yet it somehow didn't seem that far from the reality that some stars are falling into. However, there could have been more variety in some of the wording choices. I noticed especially that Meryl's character seemed to fall back into the same insults. Maybe this was a character choice or maybe it was someone to polite to come up with more powerful insults. Either way, it was overall fantastic, but could have used some tweaking.

However, there was nothing to tweak in the character work. This was simply surprise after surprise for me, but I must start my way from the bottom. Isabella Rossallini was splendidly over the top as Lisle, but I have to admit the character is relatively standard. She was conventional, but that doesn't detract from the fact that she did it very well. Bruce Willis was another huge surprise for me. Bruce generally does not do terribly well outside of action films, but he was completely unrecognizable as the wimpy little Doctor Menville. There was no trace of Die Hard to be found. However, for me the two biggest surprises were Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep. I have never seen a movie with Goldie Hawn before, so I was expecting a shallow, Kate Hudson-esque performance. However, Goldie brought such a drive and demonic motivation to her character that I cannot fault her a single thing. Meryl Streep was also spot on, as she always is. However, she was still a surprise to me because, although we come to expect perfection from Meryl, we do not often think of her in terms of comedic genius. However, she was spot on. Funniest of the cast and never falling flat, Streep pulled off a combo of arrogance, desperation, and slapstick without missing a beat.

This movie I would consider to be a lost treasure. Sure it was over the top, but watching Streep, Hawn, and Willis, three of the most respected actors in Hollywood, turn on each other and offer up a desperate moral for young starlets today is just too good to pass up. It was both entertaining and moralistic and, with this kind of a movie, what more could you want?