Movie #110 - Edward Scissorhands

"His scars run deep."

At the start of the decade, director Tim Burton was at the top of his game. With Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton was relying on the previous success of films like Batman and Beetlejuice. Not only was Edward Scissorhands a great addition to Burton's repertoire, this was the beginning of Burton's obsession with the casting of Johnny Depp.

My wife and I have noticed that Burton has continued to utilize Depp and his wife Helena Bonham Carter in almost every project that he has worked on in this decade. Burton is currently working on his next project, Alice in Wonderland, which is in post-production for 2010 release. Guess who is in that movie - Depp and Carter.

Either way, Burton does have a way with telling a fairytale story, with both dark undertones and a wondrous theme. I enjoyed the storyline related to the Scissorhands character and I like the fact that apart from his ailment, that is the only thing wrong with him.

Post-Scissorhands, Burton went on somewhat of a flop run... but he's recovered nicely in recent years. This obsession with Depp and Carter will hopefully end soon - its getting kinda creepy seeing the three of them continue to work together... like a pseudo-threesome if you ask me.

Anyhow, with Scissorhands, Burton had the writing and casting of actors perfectly executed. Depp was just an emerging teen heartthrob at the time and this was his ground breaking role in his career. Ryder was just coming of age as she went on to make Dracula and Reality Bites shortly afterwards... not surprising is that Ryder worked with Burton on Beetlejuice, so he really does like using people he's comfortable with as part of his main cast.

Diane Wiest was a nice addition to the overall cast and an Anthony Michael Hall on steroids was cast as the villain. No matter what he's done since the 80's, I still see him as the "nerd" from Weird Science and Sixteen Candles, despite his accomplishments on television's Dead Zone.

In the end, if you like the romantic-comedy-drama-thriller film wrapped into one, you'll like this PG movie from the 90's. What's funny to see is how far of a contrast the acting careers of Depp and Ryder have gone in opposite directions... how much further can it go?