Death Becomes Her

Robert Zemeckis is not my favorite director, "Contact" notwithstanding. There's nothing wrong with his movies; they're just fluffy. "Back to the Future" had an exhilarating two-billion-thread plot, but a disappointing moral climax-Marty's reengineered past creates an alternate present where his family is wealthy and the thing he covets most, a 4x4, is in the garage. (Such was our national mood--blame Reagan.) And "Forrest Gump", a decent and poignant melodrama, tried to be a satire too but instead of knowing commentary it delivered cliches (John Lennon on the Dick Cavett show answers questions using only lyrics from "Imagine"; an anti-war protester at a Washington rally makes his case before the crowd with the argument "Viet F...in' Nam!").

On the other hand, Zemeckis directed this, one of the great black comedies of the '90s. "Death Becomes Her" is a delicious, well-observed satire about makeup, makeup and more makeup. In Hollywood, if you're old you're run out of town on a rail and Meryl Streep's character is horrified that her body is going south. Streep has great comic timing (this role and her role in "Postcards from the Edge" are too-infrequent examples of it) and she makes a believable ogre of Madeline Ashton, a Streisand-esque demon. As the film begins in 1978 Madeline is onstage in a Broadway musical version of "Sweet Bird of Youth", hilariously retooled as an unironic paean to her girlish looks (she sings the unforgettable "I See Me" to her own reflection). Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn) and her fiancee Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis) are in the audience, and after the show Madeline greets old friend Helen backstage, and promptly steals Ernest away from her for marriage. Flash forward seven years; Helen is overweight, living alone with dozens of cats and endlessly rewatching movie star Madeline being murdered in a scene from one of her films. She is evicted and arrested but in jail she hits on an elegant solution for eliminating Madeline from her mind: eliminating her.

Flash forward to 1992 Los Angeles; has-been Madeline is caking on makeup and scheduling multiple face-lifts to fend off the inevitable. Ernest, formerly a plastic surgeon with a promising career, is now a mortician who dresses and retouches the best-looking corpses in the business. (His secret: spraypaint.) No sooner has Madeline rediscovered a drop-dead gorgeous Helen--looking impossibly young and voluptuous at her own 50th birthday party--then she panics and becomes desperate for a quick fix for her fading looks. She ends up in a mysterious Hollywood mansion with a sorceress (Isabella Rossellini) who gives her a magic potion granting eternal youth. Meanwhile Helen seduces Ernest and enlists his help in murdering Madeline. But comes a twist (literally) and suddenly Madeline gets a looks at immortality, and her own rear end, following a nasty fall down a staircase.

All the actors shine here. Goldie Hawn is hilarious. Bruce Willis, an underrated comic actor, is goofier than he's been since "Moonlighting". Sydney Pollack does a virtuoso one-take cameo as a doctor who loses it after examining a dead-but-still-breathing Madeline. There are a lot of twists and surprises, not the least of which is that the FX get some of the biggest laughs. With technology these days being so good FX often slip invisibly into the background, this movie flaunts its CG-manipulated human bodies as something to goggle at.

Zemeckis' usual trademarks are here, including elaborate tracking shots in expositional scenes and the use of mirrors to combine on- and off-screen space (in this movie about vanity there is a surplus of mirrors, one in practically every scene). The movie was written by Martin Donovan and David Koepp (they cowrote "Apartment Zero"; Koepp wrote "Jurassic Park" and its sequel). The mordant, sour-as-kumquats score is by Alan Silvestri ("Back to the Future", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"). The special effects were produced by Industrial Light and Magic.

In 1978, in Broadway, the decadent and narcissist actress Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep) is performing Songbird, based on Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth. Then she receives her rival Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn), who is an aspiring writer, and her fiancé Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis), who is a plastic surgeon, in her dressing-room. Soon Menville calls off his commitment with Helen and marries Madeline. Seven years later, Helen is obese in a psychiatric hospital and obsessed in seeking revenge on Madeline. In 1992, the marriage of Madeline and Menville is finished and he is no longer a surgeon but an alcoholic caretaker.

Out of the blue, they are invited to a party where Helen will release her novel Forever Young and Madeline goes to a beauty shop. The owner gives a business card of the specialist in rejuvenation Lisle Von Rhuman (Isabella Rossellini) to her. When the envious Madeline sees Helen thin in a perfect shape, she decides to seek out Lisle and buys a potion to become young again. Further, she advises that Madeline must take care of her body. Meanwhile Helen seduces Menville and they plot a scheme to kill Madeline. When Madeline comes home, she has an argument Menville and he pushes her from the staircase. She breaks her neck but becomes a living dead. When Helen arrives at Menville's house expecting that Madeline is dead, she is murdered by Madeline. But she also becomes a living dead and they conclude they need Menville to help them to maintain their bodies. But Menville wants to leave them.

"Death Becomes Her" is an American black comedy with excellent special effects even after twenty-three years after the release and great cast. The trash storyline is strange and original and the black humor may not be pleasant for everyone. But there are funny and witty quotes and situations and this film has not aged. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Morte Lhe Cai Bem" ("Death Fits Well to Her")

I mean, I doubted this movie at first from the beginning in Broadway. But as it progressed, I was laughing so hard on certain scenes like when Dr. Menville is reporting the murder of Madelyn and she suddenly gets up and starts walking toward him. It was too funny and the effects were so phenomenal. I mean literally. But then again, it won an Oscar for its effects. I mean, the fight scene where the 2 start fighting with shovels and Helen breaks off the metal end of Mad's and she throws it right through her. "Yes! I mean No! Oh Damn!" That scene was just side-splitting. Overall it was a good black comedy and I'd recommend it to anybody. And Robert Zemeckis, I never knew he did such a great movie because he's a head producer for Dark Castle Entertainment and he's done some pretty bad movies from there like Ghost Ship and Thir13en Ghosts. But wow, he has really made an excellent movie.

An enjoyable dark comedy mocking Hollywood's obsession with youth and their adamant belief in "lasting" vanity achieved through plastic surgery. The three leads are all superb and have a believable love/hate on-screen rapport. The visual effects (both digital and practical) still hold up very well to this day; Robert Zemeckis films never falter in this department. Side note: Bruce Willis is such a cutie in this film; he acts quite well in an against type role playing a high-strung, alcoholic plastic surgeon/mortuary cosmetologist. Death Becomes Her is a wickedly awesome viewing experience. Highly recommended if you like satirical dark comedies and '90s films.

When a woman learns of an immortality treatment, she sees it as a way to outdo her long-time rival.

This film was intended to be a sequel to the "Tales From the Script" television show, and although the TFTC name is not attached, you still get a strong sense of the humor we have come to expect. David Koepp and Martin Donovan (who last worked together on "Apartment Zero") had intended to write a few short films, like an anthology, but this story just grew... and Robert Zemeckis added his own brand of humor, with the dark side of Hollywood bubbling to the surface.

Along with Zemeckis comes some of his associates. That includes Dean Cundey, the cinematographer who started on low budget horror, then made John Carpenter's work look great, before moving on to the high-profile films of Zemeckis. And also producer Steve Starkey, who came up from the "Star Wars" films. Zemeckis is sort of the lesser-celebrated member of a triumvirate with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, but perhaps he should in many ways be more celebrated... his range and aesthetic are impressive.

There is no denying Robert Zemeckis is really a master of genre. He takes what could be a niche and makes it mainstream. "Back to the Future" is loved by all, not just science fiction nerds. And "Death Becomes Her" could have been horror, but with Zemeckis at the helm it was more mainstream, and is now classified as "fantasy / comedy" -- not even horror at all, despite the themes!

Although Meryl Streep was great (as always), she has said that it "was like being at the dentist" having to work in such a way to accommodate the special effects. She vowed never to work in such a film again, and for the most part I think she has stayed true to this vow. Which brings up an interesting divide between the actors of Streep's level (constant Oscar nominees) and those who appear in genre films again and again. Maybe Oscar acting is not better, but merely employs a different skill set?

Speaking of Oscars, "Death Becomes Her" won the Academy Award for Visual Effects. That is so well-deserved. Anyone who watches this film should be impressed by what they were able to do. Why is it that today (2016) we spend millions of dollars to make things look like animation, but already in 1992 they had perfected a way of making it look like heads were falling off and holes were being blown through people? We are regressing!

Scream Factory comes through with a Collector's Edition blu-ray. Although the features on the disc are a bit scant for a collector's edition, they were able to put together a series of interviews to make a retrospective. Streep and Goldie Hawn did not participate (not surprisingly), but Zemeckis did, which is really quite a coup. And David Koepp! And legendary cinematographer Dean Cundey, who had come with Zemeckis from "Back to Future"! Fans of the film who want to know a bit more about what went into this picture are strongly encouraged to pick it up.