Winona Ryder may be in the news nowadays for her off-screen exploits. This was also true in 1990, when she was forced to pull out of the role of Mary Corleone in THE GODFATHER PART III due to exhaustion. But at least in 1990, she had movies out to remind people that she was an actress too, and a damn good one at that. While WELCOME HOME, ROXY CARMICHAEL, which will be dealt with in a later column, pretty much came and went, both Tim Burton's EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, and Richard Benjamin's MERMAIDS show her off to great advantage.
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS marked Ryder's second time working with Burton, who previously directed her in BEETLEJUICE. In that film, she played the weird, aloof daughter. But it's a measure of both Ryder's versatility and Burton's faith in that versatility that allowed him to get away with casting her as the most normal person in the movie. Burton's movie, adapted by Caroline Thompson from a story by Burton, concerns the title character (Johnny Depp), a boy put together by a gentle, reclusive scientist (Vincent Price) who died just before he could give Edward hands (hence, the title; he has scissors over his hands). He's left all alone in his inventor's old mansion, until one day, Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest), an Avon lady, stumbles in. She sees Edward, takes pity on him, and decides to take him home.
This is clearly Burton's homage to FRANKENSTEIN, but he and Thompson put a clever twist on the tale. Far from being freaked out by Edward when they see him, Peg's neighbors and friends instantly take to him, especially Joyce (Kathy Baker), the town floozy. He cuts their hair, he cuts their dogs' hair, he cuts their trees and hedges, and he's even brought by Peg's son Kevin (Robert Oliveri) into school for show and tell. Only two people don't fall under Edward's spell, at first. One is Esmerelda (O-lan Jones), the fundamentalist neighbor who thinks Edward is a sign from the devil. The other is Peg's daughter Kim (Ryder), who comes home from a camping trip to find him in her bed, and is understandably freaked. Later, however, she changes her mind, and it's around this time that Edward's fortunes begin to turn for the worse. Joyce tries to seduce him, and when he runs off in terror, she turns on him. Kim's boyfriend Jim (Anthony Michael Hall) forces him to help commit a robbery that goes wrong. And things get worse.
