Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Take the story of Frankenstein's monster, remove the hateful creator, and replace the little girl's flowers with a brightly pastel Reagan-era suburb. Though not my personal favorite Tim Burton film, I feel like this one best encapsulates his style and story interests.

Very enjoyable.

It's funny the way we picture things in our minds. I had heard of <em>'Edward Scissorhands'</em> but actually knew very little about it, typified by the fact I was expecting this to be very dark - probably just based on the seeing the cover here and there. It's much sillier than expected, but in a positive way.

I do kinda end up wishing they went down a more dark/creative route, instead of relying on the novelty of having scissors as hands; though, to be fair, they do touch on the deeper side a bit. With that said, I did get a good amount of entertainment seeing this plot unfold. It's weird and wonderful.

Johnny Depp is a great actor and is very good here, mainly via his facial expressions and body language. It's cool to see Winona Ryder involved, someone I've thoroughly enjoyed in more recent times in <em>'Stranger Things'</em>. Alan Arkin and Anthony Michael Hall also appear.

The film looks neat, as I've come to expect from Tim Burton. It has the obvious touch of Bo Welch to it, with the neighbourhood looking not too dissimilar to what Welch would create for 2003's <em>'The Cat in the Hat'</em> - which I, truly, enjoyed.

Undoubtedly worth a watch.

Love this movie. It's like a non evil Freddy Kruger. The ending could have been better though.

Vincent Price has spent his life working on a labour of love - a "son", an artificially constructed person that lacks only hands - for which he temporarily has two pairs of scissors. Sadly, the creator dies before he can rectify this and so young "Edward" (Johnny Depp) is left alone in his lofty castle. Alone, that is until a kindly Dianne Wiest ("Peg") takes him under her wing, introduces him to her many friends - including an on-form Winona Ryder ("Kim") - and they all discover he has a remarkable ability for topiary (and hairdressing!). Soon he is all the rage, the talk of the town - but always the misfit, and of course when a mishap - in this case a robbery for which he is framed - occurs, his fickle friends turn on him readily. It's a touching tale of innocence and humanity; Depp plays his role skilfully and with delicacy and humour, and the last half hour is quite a damning indictment of thoughtlessness and selfishness that still resonates today. Like many "fairy" tales, it has it's root in decent morals and Tim Burton is ahead of the game in delivering a nuanced and enjoyable modern day parable that makes you laugh, smile and wince with shame in equal measure.