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Cast & Credits

Edward Scissorhands: Johnny Depp
Kim: Winona Ryder
Peg: Dianne Wiest
Jim: Anthony Michael Hall
Joyce: Kathy Baker
The Inventor: Vincent Price
Bill: Alan Arkin

20th Century-Fox Presents A Film Directed By Tim Burton, Produced By Denise Di Novi And Burton, written By Caroline Thompson, Based On A Story By Burton And Thompson. Music By Danny Elfman.

Running Time: 105 Minutes.

There’s one thing I’ve noticed about many monster movies. The monster isn’t the problem. It’s perception. Take King Kong, for example. He was a happy beast, living in the wilderness of a world that was far away from the realms of man’s destructive hands. And in this jungle, he grew to be the humble giant that he was. But man only saw him as a ferocious beast, only with the desire to profit from his appearance. They didn’t even give him a chance, or observe him, like Ann, the blue-eyed, blonde girl did. If they had, they would’ve realised that he was a placid creature.

So, in short, mankind is disillusioned. First impressions are too important to us and we’re fiercely judgmental as a species. And that’s what most monster movies are all about. What’s interesting about Edward Scissorhands, though, is that the monster in the movie isn’t Edward at all. It’s us.

Tim Burton shows us suburbia as though it were an exhibit in a satirical zoo. The houses are geometric clones, they’re tinted with vivid colours and all the cars in the neighbourhood leave and arrive at the same time. The people in these houses are no different. They’re all so fake that once you accept them as the reality that the movie is grounded in, at some point of time, Edward starts to look like the only human being in the film. And he’s surrounded by monsters.

The movie begins with an Avlon saleswoman who walks from door to door, selling make up. Tim Burton uses this sequence to his advantage, giving us ample time to analyse and understand the key characters in the film. When nobody in the neighbourhood buys her products, she turns to a mansion situated on top of a surrealistically eerie hill. Over there, she is shocked out of her wits to meet Edward - a humanoid whose master passed away, leaving him alone. What makes matters worse is he’s still unfinished. In the course of slowly building his character to make him man-like, his master hadn’t given him the one thing that would make him human - hands, leaving him with sharp metallic scissor like fingers.

Despite his untoward appearance, the woman takes him into her life and from here on, through Edward; we see how scarcely varied the characters in the suburb are - how selfish, prejudiced, judgmental and conniving they are. And although he is deeply affected by the goings on, he is largely unexpressive. A mime sans mime. Through this method, Tim Burton gets the audience to become Edward. Feel what he feels. And through our sympathy for him, understand how shallow society has become. But in his own unique way, he also tells us that there’s nothing we can do to change these monsters. Because we are the way we are and we can’t help it. All we can do is sink into this tragic tale and feel sorry for ourselves - for not being able to understand Edward.

But even through this brilliant metaphor, Tim Burton buckles into a nasty finish when Edward, emotionally and physically hurt by the monsters around him, suddenly makes a character nose-dive and entirely deviates from what he’s meant to do in the film. From being a portal for the audience into the film, he detaches himself and becomes violent. And suddenly, the beauty and simplicity of whatever the story was building up to comes tumbling down, crashing and burning.

Tim Burton has made a beautiful character film, visually breathtaking, subliminally sound and astoundingly intricate. A true tragedy - not only because of what happens to Edward in the hands of misapprehension, but also because of Tim Burton’s failure to keep his characterisation consistent. Nevertheless, this film scores high on everything. Amazing Art Direction, beautiful cinematography, soulful music and very good acting make this film a beautiful experience.

Miss this only if you’ve got something immensely better to do - like meeting Tim Burton, for instance.