Edward Scissorhands is one of Tim Burton's prolific work. This stars Johnny Depp as the titular character, and his life in his neighborhood when Peg Boggs took him in her home. It showed the relationship he had with his neighbors and the family, including his crush on Kim. This had the signature Tim Burton style to it, a style that while charming back then, may not have aged very well.
Despite scenes that can be considered a little bit too-adult (like the neighbor), Edward Scissorhands is at the heart, a children's film. It teaches you not to take advantage of the goodness of others, to be more accepting of people who might be different from you, and to look beyond the perfect colors of your world.
I didn't really notice it until the very end, but the titular character doesn't say much. He's usually surrounded by the chatters of the Bogg family and their neighborhood, treating him as a special snowflake until things inevitably go wrong and people turn against him. The movie also tried to add a bit more to Edward's life by making him have a crush on Kim.
Beyond the approach and style of the film, there really isn't much to it. Despite being in the 'real world' for some time, he never developed a personality beyond what he usually does. The film also shows montages where he is taught by his inventor on how to be a real person, but he mostly just stands there and cuts, not making any real relationships - not even with the Boggs, who were very much like an open book for him. Performance-wise, there wasn't much either. I've seen better performances of Winona Ryder, and she was in her youth prime during this time. Dianne Wiest and Alan Arkin were standouts; I wished they had more scenes. Johnny Depp fits the role in a way that he made it work. He acted like a child, he was curious, shy, angry, - he has more range here than any of his current works.
This scored a bit higher on my book because of the technical side, but strip all of that away, and it becomes a movie that fails to go beyond its surface.
While I much prefer Beetlejuice as my favorite film by Tim Burton, I do think this is his most definitive work as subsequent re-watches definitely show more layers such as the scene of Edward being on trial and the cop who had arrested him is aware that he is innocent as he would tell Edward to watch out for anyone as a reminder that the world is a very complicated place.
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