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~ Once upon a time there was a man who had scissors for hands ... He lived in a castle on a hill that looked down upon a small suburban town. An elderly inventor [Vincent Price] created the man, giving him all the body parts required of a human except hands, for the inventor died before he could finish his creation ... Edward Scissorhands [Johnny Depp] lived alone in the castle for many years until one day someone raps hard at the door and in walks the local Avon Lady, Peg [Dianne Wiest]. Disheartened by the way Edward is living, she invites him to leave the damp and dismal castle and live with her family back in colorful suburbia ... Here he settles in and befriends Peg's husband, Bill [Alan Arkin] and their son, Kevin. He quickly falls in love with their daughter, Kim [Winona Ryder]and astounds the neighborhood with his 'chopping talents' that range from topiary to haircutting. But it soon becomes obvious that his scissor-hands are deadly sharp ... Throughout the film Edward is transformed from freak to celebrity and inevitably back to freak once more, as the townspeople - who are initially enchanted by his oddball talents - soon tire of him. Once trouble rears its ugly head - mainly in the shape of Kim's jealous boyfriend, Jim [Anthony Michael Hall] - Edward is rendered an outcast once more ... The final confrontation aptly takes place one snowy Christmas Eve, a nice touch for this modern-day fairytale ~ What Tim Burton has created here is a modern-day Frankenstein, loved by a few but shunned by an angry mob, who inevitably fear and hate him. Like Mary Shelley's creation, Edward is the Other, an outsider who knows little about life in the real world and finds it equally hard to adapt to his new life and surroundings; he is extremely naive and vulnerable, imaginative yet misunderstood like many of the characters in Tim Burton's films [see Ed Wood]. For the film's setting, Burton offers two strikingly different locations - a stereotypical 1980s suburban village and a Gothic castle - which works perfectly when comparing the uninspiring and viciously petty suburbanites to the lonely gentle spirit that is Edward. Ghost BookFiends.Read full review
When an Avon Lady (Dianne Wiesst) from an over-suburbanized, pastel world of sameness, goes to a creepy castle to make a sale, she finds a Gothic Johnny Depp, Edward, whose creator, Vincent Price, dies leaving him with scissorhands and ultimately socially isolated. Peg, being utterly suburbanite stupid but caring, takes Scissorhands into her public world and out of his private one. The deliberate exaggerated sameness-difference between his former surroundings in a spooky castle with Price "fathering" him, and sickening-all-the-same suburbia is hysterically amusing as a cynical social commentary. As is the way that the neighbors of Peg's and her family respond to a scissorhanded freak of sub-culture. Edward Scissorhands, like the more contemporary "Powder" is a surrealist's tale that deals with social intolerance (like "Powder" does), genius (like "Powder" does), and a uburbanite supremacism that believes its sameness is superior and an authority over difference (as "Powder" does). In this way, Depp delivers a silent message in a Gothic style that is as memorable as can be. Most unfortunately, this was 82yo Vincent Price's last screen role: as Scissorhand's creator. The brief beginning interactions between Price and Depp are well worth noting as classic acting. I call this one a must see for everyone, any and every age. Especially important for bullies and those taunted by them to see, as "Powder" is. Well beyond the surface themes are heavy social lessons.Read full review
This is my all-time favorite movie ever made. The storyline is enlightening but real which makes it so much more incredibly sad. To think that while this is a fictional character there are people in all parts of the world who are not accepted just because of the way they look. This is one of the most thought-provoking movies ever made. To truly review this movie a person must elude to what this movie is about without telling you the storyline. That would do this artistic venture a disservice and you as the viewer would lose the opportunity to truly take away every second of gut-wrenching writing presented here. What parent cannot empathize with the open-minded adults and young girl in this movie who see the potential this young man has to offer and not think of their own children and wonder how the world is going to treat them, especally if they are in any way not 'normal'. The characters in this movie are beautiful in playing their roles and making the viewer feel their happiness, pain, love, and eventually heartbreak. A person cannot watch this movie and not understand that each and every person just wants to be loved for who they are and for what they can accomplish. And while Johnny Depp is glorious in this once-in-a-lifetime role, we must not forget the brillance of Vincent Price whose performance is endearing. If you don't all ready own this movie, go out and buy, sit back, and truly let your mind open and your heart listen to the cries of the people around you who are not 'cookie-cutter' looking. You will need the tissues.Read full review
Tim Burton is a strange character, and he has a different sort of mind. But in that mind there is a lot of brilliance. He has brought us a lot of fantasy type movies and movies that make us just go "What was he thinking?". That's definitely not a bad thing as he has given us gems like A Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Big Fish, and Edward Scissorhands. Edward Scissorhands is a story about a scientist (played by Vincent Price) who makes a boy but dies before he can put the boy's hands on him, so he still just has scissors for hands. Later an Avon lady comes to call on the house where the boy, Edward (played by Johnny Depp), lives. She sees that he is all by himself, so she brings him home with her to live with her family. They find that he is a very shy but talented boy. He can do many different things with his scissors that others can't, like do hedgework, cut hair on dogs and humans, and ice sculpt. But his scissorhands also make certain things for him very difficult, like eating and shaking hands. He is viewed as eccentric for a while, then he is viewed as an outsider and people want him to leave. Edward Scissorhands is kind of parallel for me in my life. When I was younger, a family from Laos moved into our neighborhood. It was a small town with mostly white people. The town hadn't really had an Asian family in their midst before, and many people didn't know how to react. But after seeing Edward Scissorhands, I realized how this movie was similar to that. I got to know an Asian boy from the family who was the same age as me. Like Edward, he was eager to learn about all the things that were going on around him. He was fascinated with things that we took for granted. But he also brought in some culture to me that I had never experienced before like martial arts and other artwork that was native to him. To the few friends he had, he was a marvel. But to most of the town he was weird and an outsider. Sadly, the family left town after a few years, but the impression that he left on me was lifelong. Same thing kind of applies with Edward Scissorhands. He was a misunderstood outsider to everyone except those closest to him, and when he went back to the place where he came from, those closest to him were hurt. I definitely recommend this movie to everyone. It's a comedy, but also a sort of tragic love story at the same time. But it's not too sappy to be labeled a chick flick. It's not a realistic story, but it's a story that shows us the morality of how we should treat others regardless of how different they are.Read full review
This movie is one of my all time favorites and to me is one of the first movies that Johnny Depp really got to show his weird/creepy side. Not creepy as in a scare factor type creepy; more so as in he can just play those roles that make you laugh but at the same time oddly fasicnated and a little disturbed. This is actually one of the only movies that I will even watch with Winona Ryder in it, Don't really ahve a reson I don't like her I just don't. Love this movie, and the fact that the "inventor" in the movie is none other then Scary Movie Legend Vincent Price... makes it that much better, mixing the new with the old in a weird cookie cutter town. loved it. Tim Burton is amazing and I can't wait for Alice in Wonderland.
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