1988
D: Tim Burton
C: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Carmen Filpi, Simmy Bow, Sylvia Sidney, Robert Goulet, Dick Cavett, Glenn Shadix, Patrice Martinez, Rachel Mittelman, Annie McEnroe
W: Tim Burton, Larry Wilson & Michael McDowell (story); Michael McDowell & Warren Skaaren (screenplay)
Original Music: Danny Elfman
Cinematography: Thomas E. Ackerman
Editing: Jane Kurson
Runtime: 92 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Technicolor
Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1
Sound Mix: Dolby
Certification: PG
Adam and Barbara Maitlands’ dream home sits atop a sun-showered hill in the idyllic Connecticut village of Winter River. One day they go into town to pick up some supplies and get into a freak accident. Returning home they slowly realize that they are no longer among the living. They find a book called The Handbook of the Recently Deceased, and are soon appointed their own personal afterlife social worker, who teaches them the ins and outs of being dead. Relegated to the confines of their house as ghosts, they soon come to terms with the afterlife. Until, that is, the Dietzes arrive.
Charles and Delia Dietz are yuppie transplants from New York. The rat race has given Charles a nervous breakdown, so he decides to move his family to peaceful Winter River, far away from the bright lights and honking horns of the city. But Delia Dietz is not at all happy with living in the sticks or with the Maitlands’ L.L. Bean aesthetic, so she enlists the aid of her interior decorator to do a complete overhaul of the property. This doesn’t sit well with the Maitlands, who after trying and failing to scare the Dietzes away become so determined to get rid of these city folk that they call on the services of Betelgeuse (”the ghost with the most”). An afterlife “bio-exorcist” who promises to rid the Maitlands of these pests, Betelgeuse’s tactics aren’t what they bargained for, so the Maitlands set about getting rid of him. All ends well, as the Maitlands and Dietzes forge a truce and decide that the house is big enough for all of them.
The creation of the bucolic little town of Winter River is the best thing about this comedy. It has the same enchanting beauty that I find in Maxfield Parrish’s paintings of New England villages. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis are ostensibly the stars of this film, but their characters aren’t well developed, so they act as dull foils to the other characters. The set design is sharp, especially the waiting room for the dead. And the score by Danny Elfman is wonderfully inventive, making great use of a couple classic Harry Belafonte hits in “Day-O” and “Jump in the Line.” Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O’Hara, and Glenn Shadix (who plays Delia’s interior decorator Otho) are fabulous. As Betelgeuse, Michael Keaton is only on screen 17 minutes but he does vaudevillian wonders with what he’s given, and to this day it’s the role people are most likely to associate him with after Batman. Kudos to whatever clever mind thought up the zany idea of casting Dick Cavett and Robert Goulet as dinner guests.
Post a Comment