Before I watched this film again to write this review, I don't believe I had seen Edward Scissorhands since I watched it during its theatrical run in 1990. However, as is the case with a number of people I have spoken to over the years, it remained in my memory as a fun, moving film with a perfect mix of sadness and imagination. A mysterious but friendly man created by a not-so-mad scientist and given sets of scissors for hands -- how could a movie like that not plant itself in your subconscious? Recently I began wondering whether this movie is really so great. Now, eighteen years after seeing it for the first time, I'm happy to say that Edward Scissorhands is every bit as good as I remember it.

Just outside a quintessential 1950s American town complete with colorful houses and perfect lawns, there is a dark, decadent mansion that is never visited and hardly even acknowledged. One day an Avon door-to-door saleswoman named Peg visits the mansion in desperation for a customer. Inside she finds a man all alone, a man with scissors for hands. Edward, it is later explained, was built by an old, reclusive inventor (played by the great Vincent Price) and given scissors for hands until a true pair of hands could be created for him. Before real hands could be given him, however, his creator and only acquaintance died, leaving him to live all alone in the mansion. Though frightening in appearance, he turns out to be very kind, and Peg takes him home to her family in order to offer him love and friendship. Very soon everyone in town is wanting to meet this strange visitor, and Edward quickly becomes a local celebrity. It is not long, though, before he is framed for burglary,automatically deemed guilty by the town, and never viewed the same way again. It is a take on one of writer-director Tim Burton's favorite themes: the outcast.

The character of Edward (which is played by Johnny Depp) is perfectly acted and written. He is always timid and unsure of himself, but he has certain comical qualities, particularly the short-stepped, face-down walk he does when trying to get away from something. He is given very few lines, but he does have the ability to speak, very clearly in fact. When he does talk, his lines are as innocent as those of a child. When a crazy woman accosts Edward in the name of God and turns to his caretakers, saying, "Have you poor sheep strayed so far from the path?" Edward replies with a tone indicating he truly believed she meant everything she said literally, responding, "We're not sheep." Edward is a kind person, and these attributes make us love him all the more.

Edward's design also works to establish his character and his mysterious nature. His face is powder-pale and ridden with scars, his hair is wildly unkempt, and he wears a leather suit so tight and so heavily adorned with straps and rings that it does not look like it could ever be removed. Of course that's to say nothing of the fact that his metacarpals are, in fact, cutting utensils. When we see him for the first time, crouching in a dark corner of his empty mansion with his blades hanging toward the ground, he looks like a bird of prey, waiting for something to devour. But when he walks into the light and approaches us, we see that this beast is really just a lonely young man, one who not only does not fit in with society but who cannot fit in with society. Even during his moments of happiness, there is always some sadness evident in his character.

Another aspect of the film that is indispensable to its aesthetic success is its score, composed by the legendary Danny Elfman. It is impossible to stress the impact of this score enough. It beautifully conveys a sense of wonder, admiration, and loss, perfectly fitting itself to the themes of the film. It is interesting in that it rarely contorts itself to highlight certain moments. It keeps the same tone throughout, adding not only emotional depth but thematic continuity to the events on screen. While the acting and the plot are the substance of Edward Scissorhands, the score is its magic. Even as seasoned and talented as Elfman is, this score remains one of his best.

Edward Scissorhands is actually told as a frame story, and this is a vital detail. The events occur within the framework of an old woman in the town years later telling her granddaughter the story of Edward. I have saved this bit of information for this point in the review because it is not actually relevant to the understanding of the plot, or even of the outcast theme. The fact that this story is presented as a story creates a mythical effect. When the old woman begins telling of Edward, she offers the tale to her granddaughter, it may be surprising to hear, as an explanation for snow. Her reason for saying this is unclear until we are about three-quarters of the way through the film, after the town's rejection of Edward has begun. The daughter of the family with which Edward is living is inside her house when she sees snow outside. She walks out the door to see Edward standing high on a ladder, all alone, carving an enormous, beautiful ice sculpture of anangel, his scissors moving with blazing speed and precision and creating snow-like ice shavings that float to the ground. Because of this, the film's tale also becomes an individual's basis for understanding the world. The framed nature of the story gives the events of Edward Scissorhands even more emotional depth than they have on their own.

There is one flaw in the film, and that is the fact that Edward's contentment with his own identity, with his great idiosyncrasies, is never fully addressed. Several people throughout the course of the film tell him they know a doctor who might be able to help him out, and he tells one of them that he would like to meet the doctor, but the issue is always quickly forgotten, and no meetings with a doctor are every pursued, or even considered outside of brief conversation. He seems genuinely interested in at least talking with a doctor about whether he could be fixed, but it is never made clear whether Edward is ultimately happy with the way he is or whether he harbors some resentment toward himself. I think many of us would like to know how Edward feels about himself: whether he is a proud outcast or a regretful one.

I'll admit it. Edward Scissorhands is a science fiction movie in which the science fiction elements do not matter. He could have been given his scissorhands magically by little fairies, and the tale would have remained the same. The fact is, though, that Edward's anatomy is given an origin grounded in scientific experimentation. Lucky for me, that means I get to review this great film at The Sci-Fi Block. If you haven't seen this movie, you are missing out on something amazing. If you have seen it but it's been a while, check it out again. It's everything you remember.