Movie Review: Ed Wood

Tim Burton again! The last ten days or so have taken me through many movies by Tim Burton, 'Big Fish', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', this movie and 'Corpse Bride'. I will be writing about 'Corpse Bride' soon. As I have mentioned earlier I like Tim Burton and I liked all these movies. With 'Ed Wood' considered his best movie I knew I'd like it. It was only about how much I'd like it.

PREPARATION FOR THE MOVIE: This is a biopic and it's about the 'worst director of all time'. Even though I claim to follow cinema very closely I could not claim I had heard of Edward D. Wood, Jr. before hearing of this film. So I did read him up on Wikipedia. Before watching the film I knew about 'Glen or Glenda' and 'Plan 9 from Outer Space'. In fact, I knew more than the movie covers.

STORY: The movie speaks of his early struggle and his friendship with Bela Lugosi. So it covers just the first three movies he has made, 'Glen or Glenda' and 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' being two of them. It'd be better to say it covers the twilight days of Lugosi.

ACTING: i knew Martin Landau won an Oscar for his performance and was definitely looking forward to scenes involving him. Johnny Depp himself is very very good. Bill Murray has only a few minutes but is noticeable.

JUST SOME THOUGHTS:

1. The treatment. Ed Wood is the worst director of all time. But this movie gives a new angle with which to view him. It almost praises him! Although it is hard to imagine that with such enthusiasm he should fail so miserably. I can't understand that. What did we learn all out lives? If you love what you do you succed, right? Why does Ed Wood fail? I don't understand.

2. Johnny Depp keeps the characer alive. In fact, it is easy to forget that Ed Wood is a failure. Depp's portrayal is of a man with endless self belief.

3. I like the end of some of Burton's movies. "Big Fish" has a very special ending and will stay with me forever. Likewise, here too the end is charming. 'This is it! I will be known by this film.' How can I forget these words? Immediately after that he goes off in the rain to get married. It is that time I felt sorry for Ed Wood. He seems like such a nice guy, at least in the film, that I didn't want him to fail. My wife who had not done the background reading before watching this film could not believe this was a biopic on the 'worst director ever'. That goes to show how lovable Burton's Ed Wood is.

RATING: 4/5