Review of Edward Scissorhands (1990) by John T — 21 Jun 2014

A great fantasy tale directed by Tim Burton. Johnny Depp portrays a teenager who was built by an eccentric inventor, played by Vincent Price in his last role. When the inventor dies before finishing his creation, Edward must go through life with knife blades for fingers, and is ultimately discovered and adopted by a ditzy Avon Lady, played by Diane Wiest, who brings him home to live with her screwball family played by Anthony Michael Hall and Winona Ryder.

Johnny Depp's deadpan naivete reminds the film goer of Michael Jackson, before his scandals became known. His character's unique cutting skills endear him to most of the neighborhood; the scenes in which he uses his appendages as a gardener, dog stylist and hair beautician were hilarious. But in the end it is a very sad tale as the film returns to Tim Burton's inspirations - Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein. The first half of "Edward Scissorhands" is essentially social satire, where Edward is placed smack in the middle of Southern California suburbia. As with most of Tim Burton's films, the protagonist has to deal with fitting into a community that is somewhat odd himself. Most notable was Edwards's ability to uses his scissorhands to sculpt the neighbors hedges into various objects and his talent as a hairstylist. The film works as a romantic fantasy and as a social satire, but it also has a great deal of straight humor. Some of it is at Edward's expense, as his scissorhands tend to get in the way of normally simple activities like getting dressed and eating. One of the funniest aspects of the film is the droll presence of Alan Arkin as the typical suburban dad whose understated comments and mellow response to the most fantastical of circumstances gives many scenes a humorous edge.