At its core, the Tim Burton directed and co-written movie Edward Scissorhands (1990) is a romantic love story. So much more comes into play in moving this film into the fantastic and the dramatic that the story of love can be lost, however, my perspective is that we should not lose hold of the movie’s core. That we deal in an incompletely built artificially intelligent man amongst a quirky landscape of people behaving badly gives this film charm.
The movie Edward Scissorhands opens with an elderly grandmother telling her granddaughter the tale of a man, Edward as portrayed by Johnny Depp, with the blades of scissors for hands. The film then settles back into the current day with Peg Boggs as portrayed by Dianne Wiest discovering the young man in a crumbling Gothic mansion while selling Avon cosmetics door-to-door.
Edward is an artificially created man built by an inventor, portrayed by Vincent Price, who had died before giving his creation, the artificially intelligent Edward, hands. Pegs brings the harmless being home to meet her family, including Pegs husband Bill, teenage daughter Kim and young son Kevin as portrayed, respectively, by Alan Arkin, Winona Ryder and Robert Oliveri. Edward comes to love Kim romantically quickly after meeting her.
The Boggs family hosts a barbecue to introduce Edward to the neighborhood. While Edward is generally befriended by the neighborhood, religious fanatic Esmeralda and Kim’s boyfriend Jim, as portrayed by O-Lan Jones and Anthony Michael Hall prove themselves two notable exceptions. Finding himself unique among his neighbors, Scissorhands sets upon an increasingly ingratiating path of using the blades attached to his forearms to perform yardwork, animal grooming and hairstyling for women of the neighborhood.
Joyce Monroe, as portrayed by Kathy Baker, toes the line between friend and enemy when at first she attempts to help Edward open a hair salon. Efforts included attempts to find a loan, locate a physical place for the establishment, and finally an unsuccessful attempt to seduce Scissorhands in exchange for her generosity. Monroe lies about Edward’s actions in the aftermath of the third point, lessening trust in Scissorhands and enabling drama the both discourages the future potential for the movie’s protagonist while also enabling those who actively dislike Edward to pursue their ends. It is in this space that the movie’s drama and romantic aspirations become fully realized in a particularly sweet manner for the grandmother sharing a story with her granddaughter from earlier in the movie.
Beyond Tim Burton‘s writing contribution, additional screenwriting credit for Edward Scissorhands rests with Caroline Thompson. Having particularly been taken with romantic sensibility and sweetness for how the character of Edward Scissorhands is remembered within the movie, I grant Edward Scissorhands as directed by Tim Burton 4.0-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Saturday, April 20, 2024
Matt Lynn Digital 