Death Becomes Her

Death Becomes Her

1992

Director- Robert Zemeckis

Cast- Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis, Isabella Rossellini

           

     Madeline (Streep) and Helen (Hawn) are lifelong friends. Well, friends is a strong word. Bitter rivals is more like it. But it is an uneven rivalry. Madeline is a glamorous, successful actress, Helen is a homely crazy cat lady to be. The centerpiece of their rivalry is Helen’s husband, Dr. Ernest Melville (Willis), a renowned plastic surgeon. Madeline steals the good doctor from Helen, driving Helen crazy and into an asylum.

           

     Fast forward a few years and Madeline and Ernest are in a loveless marriage. Ernest, on his way to becoming an alcoholic, has gone from being a plastic surgeon to a glorified undertaker, using spray paint to touch up celebrity corpses. The biggest change though is Helen, free from the asylum and smoking hot.

           

    Madeline takes drastic measures to compete with her hot rival. She visits Lisle (perfectly played by Isabella Roseesllini in a small but memorable role). Lisle is a mysterious vixen who promises eternal youth via a magic potion in exchange for a fortune. The potion works perfectly making Madeline forever young.  Helen is plotting Madeline’s murder but as it turns out you can’t kill someone who is forever young. Madeline and Helen try to kill each other but it turns out Helen has taken the same potion too. The ladies walk around with broken necks and gunshot wounds like well dressed, glamorous zombies. Stuck in the middle is the long suffering Dr. Melville, going insane from what he is witnessing, even as the undead divas use him in their chess match.

    

   The secret to the humor, besides its darkness, is the characters themselves. Madeline and Helen are both terrible people. Madeline is a heartless cuckold and Helen is a vengeful psycho. Bruce Willis makes the film though, as the hapless schmuck. Today he is thought of as a gritty action star, but you have to remember his career began as a comedic actor on Moonlighting.

            

   

Of special note is Isabella Rossellini as the Mephistophelean Lisle. She tempts others with eternal youth and bestows it with a maniacal glee. She is sexy, prancing around in almost nothing and looks like a screen siren from pre-Code Hollywood.

   This groundbreaking, one of a kind horror comedy is ageless (no pun intended). Decades after its release its still fun to watch. Even though the CGI is top notch (it won an Academy Award) it doesn’t rely on it to sell the film. Its morbid humor is still biting and all three of the primary players have a real chemistry. A great movie that walks the balance between dark fantasy and comedy perfectly.