Between the Pages

The beautiful gothic fairytale is one of my very favourite movies.

I am a big fan of Johnny Depp anyway – I think he is one of the most talented and versatile actors around today – and this is surely one of his greatest roles. He plays the title character, a man who was ‘created’ by an inventor (Vincent Price), but the inventor died before finishing off Edward by giving his ‘proper’ hands, rather than the scissors that were obviously a temporary measure. Stuck in the beautiful old castle where the inventor lived, Edward has never interacted with any other people before, but then a kindly Avon lady (Dianne Wiest) calls there and ends up taking him to live with her and her family.  And so ensues several hilarious but touching scenes (Edward valiantly battling with a pea on a plate, Edward waking up in shock and stabbing the waterbed, Edward’s first taste of alcohol). For a while, Edward is loved by all his new neighbours, except for one – everybody wants a piece of Edward, and he starts doing topiary, hairdressing and dog grooming for his all his new ‘friends’.  He also falls in love with Kim – the daughter of his new ‘family’, but who doesn’t warm to Edward like everyone else.  Kim’s boyfriend is also not happy about him, although he is quick to attempt to use Edward to his own advantage.

It doesn’t take long before things go wrong and pettiness and small mindedness sets in.  Edward, so innocent and eager to help, inadvertently ends up in a few situations where things go wrong and he gets the blame, and is hounded out of the neighbourhood.

Johnny Depp deserved an Oscar award for this.  Although he has few lines (less than 100 apparently, although I didn’t count), he portrays beautifully the innocence and wonder that Edward feels, and gives the character a lovable, childlike quality.  The viewer feels all of Edward’s emotions with him – fear, awe, anger, sadness – and this is largely due to Johnny Depp’s portrayal.

The other actors are fine; Winona Ryder does a great job as Kim, and Dianne West is great as Kim’s mother, but this is really Depp’s movie.  It’s no wonder that he and Tim Burton are such good friends, and have made so many movies together when they can come up with magic like this.

I laughed and cried in equal measure in this movie and would definitely recommend it to anyone.

Year of release: 1990

Director: Tim Burton

Writers: Tim Burton, Caroline Thompson

Main cast: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall