The Corpse Bride
For those people out there in videoland, the ones who insist that only indie
films are good, that if it is American it’s crap, and that film is dead, I
present Corpse Bride, a film of both intellect and lyrical beauty. A
film that doesn’t make things easy, or give us the traditional happy ending. It
is a film, I dare say, that shows how damned talented Tim Burton is.
Sure, sure, we have his adult fairytales, which solidified his place in trendy
stores and in the hearts of people who always feel drawn to ugly love. But
personally, Burton
hasn’t seemed like his old self of late. His films haven’t had any truth to
them, or any honest depth. Sure, Charlie was fine, and Big Fish was
ok, but neither really captured the essence of HIM. The hell of it here is that
it took a collaboration to really bring out the best in Burton, but I
tell you what, if this is the kind of stuff he can do when he works with other
people, if this is the material he can create, I wish he’d collaborate more
often. Film would be a lot better off for it.
Corpse Bride’s story comes from an old Russian legend about a young
woman, dead before her time who, through dark magic and misfortune, manages to
snare herself a living man as her groom, despite the fact that he’s to be wed
to someone who still wears all her skin out in public. The film seems to be a
pretty close approximation to that tale of yore but it has been filled out in
the most wonderful of ways. What we have is Victor (Johnny Depp), a
quiet and lonely heir to a fish fortune, who is meant to marry Victoria (Helena
Bonham Carter), a beautiful and equally quiet young woman who is the
daughter of a well-regarded family. The union will give Victor’s family a good
reputation as more than just ‘fish people’, which has yet to happen, despite
their wealth, and it will give Victoria’s
family the wealth they have squandered away. Neither Victor nor Victoria is
anxious to marry, especially a stranger, but when they finally meet,
accidentally as Victor plays the piano Victoria
has been forbidden from touching, it is love at first sight. They are
soulmates, and it is pure luck that has put them together. And this unlikely
romance should end with Happily Ever After, and would, if it weren’t for the
meddling parents and the arcane wedding ceremony that makes Victor so nervous
that he isn’t able to go through a wedding rehearsal without a mistake. Angered
at Victor’s blunders the preacher puts the wedding on hold,
demanding that Victor practice and master his vows. So, feeling like an utter
fool, Victor wanders out into the night and into the dark woods. As he walks
though, his disappointment and dejection turns into confidence and he begins
spouting his vows with ease. He gets so cocky in fact that he places the ring
intended for Victoria
onto what he thinks is an errant tree limb, and recites his vows perfectly.
What he doesn’t realize is that he has just fulfilled a different sort of a
vow, this one created by a forgotten woman who had died the night she was to be
married, and who has waited patiently for the right man to come along to love
her. And since Victor said the vows, it must be him. Her name lost through the
ages, the Corpse Bride falls madly in love with Victor, feeling that this is
truly the man that will love her and cherish her. The man she has been waiting
for for so very long. So the Corpse Bride takes Victor to her world, the world
of the dead so they can be married. But Victor has other plans, and wants
nothing more than to be away from this hideous corpse, and back to Victoria.
In his absence though Victoria’s family has found another suitor for their
daughter, a cultured man of mystery who seems to have other things on mind than
love when he asks for Victoria’s hand in marriage, much to her dismay. And when
Victor learns of this his heart breaks, and he sees that, perhaps he is better off dead and with the Corpse
Bride, who really does seem to need him. But when both the wedding of Victoria
and the stranger and the wedding between Victor and the bride converge, things
are bound to get messy.
Featuring
the usual, cartoonish characters that Burton’s drawing
and previous ‘animated’ film displayed, the style of this film is but the first
of many great strokes. Set in a sort of Other World that mixes Victorian styles
with a Hammer Films sensibility, it’s interesting that the dead seem to be far
more alive than the living, actually appreciating each moment as the living
worry each moment away. The acting is terrific and you really start to ache
over these characters and their dilemmas. The characters become more than
puppets, more than clay, they become part of a story so compelling that you
cease to see the trickery and technology and see a beautiful story of loss and
love. This is one of those films that I really hope children are able to see in
that it’s a wonderful look at love, and that sometimes letting go is the best
thing to do. That this doesn’t have an easy, or completely happy ending fits
the film, and the story perfectly, and feels like an honest conclusion. Too
many times a happy ending is grafted onto a story because audiences hate a
downer. Well, sure they do, but what they hate more is when you cheat them at
the end of the film. Pain, sacrifice, sadness, are all real, genuine things,
honest things, and sometimes a story, a film, has to end with those things in
order to stay true to what has come before it. Thankfully Corpse Bride stays very true. But this isn’t a downer of a film.
There are some fantastic songs from Danny
Elfman, some wonderful setpieces, great characters – there are SO many fun
characters in the land of the dead that it’s hard to pick a favorite. And it
was great to see two heroines who are not damsels in distress but who are
doomed by fate. Both are good, strong women, but Victoria needs someone like
Victor to spur hope in her, just as the bride needs Victor to rekindle her own
dormant love. And it’s nice to see, in Victor, a character that isn’t a
complete misfit, but is just uncertain of himself. A lot of Burton’s
characters are so isolated that it makes them hard to empathize with.
A
remarkably beautiful and well made film, it’s the sort of picture that makes
you wish Burton would stick to this format. Or at
least do more with it. Outside of the stringent Hollywood
system he’s a hell of a storyteller, but stuck in it, he’s a decent moviemaker.
A perfect romance and a great movie for dark and stormy nights. Share it with
someone dead.
…c…
