81/100
The set design is on par with the very best. It's impossible to imagine the area in which the people live is real, the uniformity making it border between dreamlike and nightmarish. It doesn't help that they're all bungalows. The interiors fall into uncanny valley by being simultaneously furnished and empty, lived in and devoid of life. The castle is equally paradoxical, people shifting from miniscule to giant depending on where they stand. Everything is black and grey, and you only see within its confines at night, the darkness somehow creating a cosy blanket over it all. In the minimal glimpses of the horizon you get, there is seemingly an empty nothingness out there. It's the kind of setting that, if you see it as a kid, haunts you until you rewatch this film years later. By far and away, this is the standout feature.
The music sets the tone very well, going hand in hand with the visuals to create a pointed and strong atmosphere.
The plot is aimless, it follows an impenetrable format as Edward just... does things. However, it keeps you engaged, but it's more in Edward and the world he lives in. That's not a negative thing. The ending, though. That was poetic. That was beautiful.
Johnny Depp did some phenomenal acting here. His lines are scarce, but he tells story through his reactions. The way he walks, touches things, reacts to conversation, and so on. The acting lies in the face and the body, not in the speech.
The characters around him are, again, a simultaneously hyperbolic and realistic representation of the "member of the tightly knit community", which creates a fascinating allegory for fearmongering and xenophobia beneath the film's surface. The characters, outside of Edward's family, act purely within their own interests, as hate breeds itself within the commune, leading to knock on effects on Edward. Everyone is so perfect and pretty until something that doesn't fit in arrives.
I remember, when I was younger, I had a burning desire to watch this film. I was a huge Johnny Depp fan. I really, really wish I had seen it then. When I have children if my own, if I do, I will watch this film with them.
The set design is on par with the very best. It's impossible to imagine the area in which the people live is real, the uniformity making it border between dreamlike and nightmarish. It doesn't help that they're all bungalows. The interiors fall into uncanny valley by being simultaneously furnished and empty, lived in and devoid of life. The castle is equally paradoxical, people shifting from miniscule to giant depending on where they stand. Everything is black and grey, and you only see within its confines at night, the darkness somehow creating a cosy blanket over it all. In the minimal glimpses of the horizon you get, there is seemingly an empty nothingness out there. It's the kind of setting that, if you see it as a kid, haunts you until you rewatch this film years later. By far and away, this is the standout feature.
The music sets the tone very well, going hand in hand with the visuals to create a pointed and strong atmosphere.
The plot is aimless, it follows an impenetrable format as Edward just... does things. However, it keeps you engaged, but it's more in Edward and the world he lives in. That's not a negative thing. The ending, though. That was poetic. That was beautiful.
Johnny Depp did some phenomenal acting here. His lines are scarce, but he tells story through his reactions. The way he walks, touches things, reacts to conversation, and so on. The acting lies in the face and the body, not in the speech.
The characters around him are, again, a simultaneously hyperbolic and realistic representation of the "member of the tightly knit community", which creates a fascinating allegory for fearmongering and xenophobia beneath the film's surface. The characters, outside of Edward's family, act purely within their own interests, as hate breeds itself within the commune, leading to knock on effects on Edward. Everyone is so perfect and pretty until something that doesn't fit in arrives.
I remember, when I was younger, I had a burning desire to watch this film. I was a huge Johnny Depp fan. I really, really wish I had seen it then. When I have children if my own, if I do, I will watch this film with them.