EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

US, 1990, 98 minutes, Colour.
Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Alan Arkin, Vincent Price, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker.
Directed by Tim Burton.

Edward Scissorhands is a different kind of film. It is a contemporary fairy tale, with touches of the Gothic and the magic castle, as well as a spoof on modern suburbia and consumerism. The two blend very nicely.

The film is based on a story by Tim Burton, former animator who went on to make Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beattlejuice and Batman. Edward Scissorhands follows his theory of animation brought alive - with the consequent freedom of imagination. The story was co-written by Caroline Thompson, a novelist, who wrote the screenplay (and the screenplay for the remake of The Addams? Family).

The film is imaginatively designed - in gentle spoof with underlying seriousness and with an attention to fairytale magic. Johnny Depp is very good at communicating the personality (or lack of personality) of the innocent Edward Scissorhands, a composite boy made by an eccentric inventor played, with customary relish, by Vincent Price. (Burton had made a short animated film about a boy called Vincent who wanted to grow up like Vincent Priced - and the film was narrated by Price himself.) The cast is particularly good, especially Diane Weist as the Avon Lady who brings Edward Scissorhands into her home. At the beginning of the film, she sets the tone and makes it all credible. Winona Ryder is attractive as her daughter, teenage star Anthony Michael Hall becomes a big heavy, Cathy Baker and Conchata Ferrell, usually most sympathetic, enjoy themselves as pastel-coloured suburban housewives.

The film has echoes of such mythic films as ET, the many films which introduce a stranger into society who acts as a catalyst for the members of that society. With its focus on good and evil, right and wrong, innocence and guilt, the film also echoes Gospel imagery and stories.

1. The work of Tim Burton? Animation, fantasy, satire, combination?

2. The Gothic mansion, its interiors, the machinery? The gardens and the shaped bushes? Suburbia and its neatness, pastels? The malls? Plastic and pastel decor? Credible atmosphere? The range of songs (especially those by Tom Jones)? Danny Elfman's atmospheric score?

3. The special effects: for Edward himself, for his hands, the castle, the inventions? The techniques for the styling of the hedges, the dogs, the hairdos?

4. The shaping of the film as a fairy tale, the opening on the mansion, the grandmother telling her granddaughter the story, the little girl listening and questioning, the return to grandmother at the end, her story about snow and ice? Edward Scissorhands as a fairytale hero?

5. The credits, the shapes, the cut-outs, the biscuits, the heart? The range of inventions? Statues, gargoyles, hedges? Vincent Price? The mansion in the flashbacks, the machine and the baking of the cookies, the making of the boy, the inventor reading him etiquette books, limerick books, the gift of the hands and his delight, his collapse? The eccentricity of the inventor and Vincent Price's style? The pathos of his death and Edward deprived of his hands?

6. Peg, the pleasant suburban Avon Lady, the humour of her calls, her long spiels, her friends knowing her and their answers? Her disappointment? Her enterprise and resolve, going to the mansion, entering, her niceness with Edward, sympathy and wanting to help? Driving him home? Her chatter, clothes, the bed, the family, the meals? Explanation of her family, Kim's return? Jim and his visit, Peg controlling the house? The women and the suggestion about the barbecue, the guests, the food and the salads? Edward and the shaping of the hedges, the dogs, the hairdos? Peg's delight in her hairdo? The possibilities of his opening his own salon? The request for the loan and being turned down? The makeup, experimenting with Edward's face? Ringing the chief Avon Lady and getting advice? The television interview and her response? Preparation for the Christmas party, the tree, her anxiety? The crisis - and her telling Kim that she was perhaps wrong in bringing Edward to the house, not thinking it through? A sympathetic portrait underlying the spoof on the Avon Lady and suburban housewife?

7. Bill, the TV father, watching TV in the backyard, singing on the roof, a nice man, his illustrations of right and wrong, searching for Edward, accepting him into the house? The suburban quiet husband? Kevin, the young boy, his crassness, his mother correcting him at the table, his friendship with Edward, taking him to the Show and Tell at school? His being rescued - and the fear of Edward's Scissorhands?

8. Kim, her place in the family, away and the sudden return, her relationship with Jim, entering the room and her fear of Edward, at the meals, the slice of meat dropped, her concern, his watching her from the television set, her putting him up to the robbery, her wanting to return, her making it up to Edward, holding him, his holding her, the kiss? Wanting him to run? Concern about the prison? Saving him at the end, coming out to tell the group that he was dead? The ending when she was a grandmother?

9. Edward Scissorhands: his appearance, clothes and hair, his scissor hands? No personality, but programmed? Nice, good manners, quietly spoken? Alone in the house? The encounter with Peg, riding in the car, his delight, piercing the water bed and his fear, the mirror, the clothes and putting them on, awkwardness at the table? Family talk? The encounter with Kim and attracted to her? The television interview and his pleasant answers? His looking at Kim? The barbecue, the women and their attentions, the salads? His skill in shaping the hedges? Audience anticipation of his shaping the dog - and the woman's delight? The hairdos? Joyce and her coming on strongly, the shop, her clothes, the sexual advances - and his innocent reporting of this? Going with Kevin to the Show and Tell and doing the cut-outs? The clashes with Jim, set up for the robbery, his being caught? With the police, the sympathetic policeman? The psychiatrist and his assessment? Talking to Kim, going to the house because she asked him? The build-up to Christmas, his shaping the snow and ice, designing the family? The attack, his wandering the town, the women hostile, ruining his designs? Kevin and the possibility of his being run over, people's fear? Running, with Kim in the mansion, the tenderness, Jim and the confrontation, the brutality of the fight, Jim's death? Saying goodbye to Kim? His staying in the mansion - his robot-like existence, his creativity in keeping the mansion beautiful?

10. The suburban women, their homes and their colours, decor, the cars leaving in lines, the lawns and watering, the gossip, sexual repression, frustrated life in the suburbs? The shops? Joyce and her eccentric style, the vamp, with the mechanic, the salad, setting up the barbecue, the shop, the sexual advance, her stories against Edward, the attempted rape, her leading the group against him? Helen and Marge, their homes, gossip, phone calls? Attracted to Edward, finally fearful, the crowd mentality? Snubbing Peg and Bill for the Christmas party? The final vengeful attack? The spoof, how black was the satire? The presentation of the bland husbands?

11. Esmeralda and her religious mania, condemnations of Edward, her organ, candles, warning the women, thinking she was vindicated?

12. Jim, relationship with Kim, visiting, taunting Edward, setting him up against his parents for the money, leaving Edward abandoned, leaving Kim, her telling him the truth, pursuing them to the mansion, the brutal fight, his death?

13. The attractiveness of a contemporary and fairy tale? The variations on Sleeping Beauty and The Frog Prince?

14. American satire, spoofing what was normal and nice? The wittiness of the dialogue? A piece of Americana?

15. The fairytale and mythic overtones? Heroes? Innocent victims? The echoes of the Gospel stories?