Edward
Scissorhands
- The movie takes place in an
entirely artificial world, where a haunting gothic castle crouches on a
mountaintop high above a storybook suburb, a goofy sitcom neighborhood where
all of the houses are shades of pastels and all of the inhabitants seem to
be emotional clones of the Jetsons. The warmest and most human resident of
this suburb is the Avon lady, who comes calling one day at the castle - not
even its forbidding facade can deter her - and finds it occupied only by a
lonely young man named Edward.
His story, told in a
flashback, is a sad one. He was created by a mad inventor, who was almost
finished with his task when he died, leaving Edward with temporary scissors
in place of real hands. One look at Edward and we see that scissors are
inconvenient substitutes for fingers: His face is a mass of scars, and he
tends to shred everything he tries to pick up.
The Avon lady isn't fazed. She bundles Edward into her car and drives him
back down the mountain to join her family, which includes daughter Kim and
husband Bill. The neighbors in this suburb are insatiably curious, led by a
nosy neighbor named Joyce (Kathy Baker). The movie then develops into a
series of situations that seem inspired by silent comedy, as when Edward
tries to pick up a pea.
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