Fading stage and film star Madeline Ashton is struggling to draw a crowd in her latest musical. Old friend Helen, along with her fiancée Ernest, pays her a visit and introduces Madeline to her plastic surgeon soon-to-be. Madeline is smitten by Herman and swiftly steals him away from Helen. The scorn woman becomes an obese recluse and swears bloody vengeance on Madeline.
| Review | Death Becomes Her (1992) |
|---|---|
| Director | Robert Zemeckis |
| Writers | Martin Donovan , David Koepp |
| Cast | Ian Ogilvy , Meryl Streep , Bruce Willis , Goldie Hawn , Isabella Rosselini , Sydney Pollack (uncredited) |
| Review | Death Becomes Her (1992) | Director | Robert Zemeckis |
|---|---|
| Writers | Martin Donovan and David Koepp |
| Cast | Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn, Isabella Rosselini, Ian Ogilvy and Sydney Pollack (uncredited) |
“You’re in violation of every natural law that I know” – Dr. Ernest Menville
Fading stage and film star Madeline Ashton (Streep) is struggling to draw a crowd in her latest musical. Old friend Helen (Hawn), along with her fiancée Ernest (Willis), pays her a visit and introduces Madeline to her plastic surgeon soon-to-be. Madeline is smitten by Herman (‘cause he’s a plastic surgeon) and swiftly steals him away from Helen. The scorn woman becomes an obese recluse and swears bloody vengeance on Madeline.
As the years pass we see that Madeline and Ernest don’t live happily ever after as Madeline is so consumed with her appearance and apparently Ernest has devoted his time to freshen up his wife. Ernest has become a heavy drinker and works as a cosmetic fixer upper for the recently departed. At a publishing event they see a stunning looking Helen and Madeline is completely shocked. On the surface Helen wants to reconcile with Madeline but soon it becomes apparent she wants to get rid of her and get Ernest back.
Soon after Madeline visits Lisle Von Rhuman (Rosselini), a very seductive and mysterious woman, who introduces Madeline to a magic potion that will stop the aging process. That’s when things get really interesting…and completely crazy.
I remember when “Death Becomes Her” premiered in ´92 to fairly little fanfare other than the fact it reportedly had some very impressive visual effects. The critics were pretty harsh and the movie pretty much discarded. It has some very black humour and the characters are more or less very reprehensible and that may have been part of the reason it backfired. It was partially lauded as a satire on the lifestyle of the rich but was deemed as too excessive and overall bleak to really succeed.
It’s completely true that the special effects are truly remarkable. I can’t think of many movies that are as effects heavy as this one and it holds up some 34 years later despite all the major technological advances. You really can’t imagine numerous scenes here would look any better even if was made today.
Then the film itself is quite simply hilarious. It deals with very broken people and in the case of Madeline and Helen; completely narcissistic individuals who have little to no redeeming qualities. Watching these two schemers try to one-up the other is a genuinely funny experience. Poor Ernest is caught in the middle of their rivalry and shows little to no backbone until he faces a very difficult decision.
And the whole satirization of the world of youth and beauty infatuation is very well played out. Helen and Madeline are the perfect embodiment of these skewed priorities and their relentless pursuit of eternal youth is as hilarious as it is sadly all too realistic considering the world we live in today with plastic surgery and, in the movies, AI touch-ups. To have Madeline and Helen also be bitter rivals going way back just invites us to enjoy a lot of funny encounters and some well written and biting dialogue between the two.
Robert Zemeckis had clearly shown he was a good director before this; “Used Cars”, “Back To The Future” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” on his resumé and he shows complete control through the whole feature. I’m no director but I’d imagine that directing a large portion of the film on a blue/green screen would double the duties but in my books he did a splendid job. The healthy budget made sure this film looks damn good along with the aforementioned visual effects. A wise choice was probably getting Dean Cundy as Director of Photography (DP on films like John Carpenter’s “Halloween” and “The Thing” among many others) and the film really is very stylish.
Then there are the superb performances that really make the movie an all around home run. I’ve never seen Meryl Streep give a bad performance (or even a mediocre one) and here she’s simply sensational. Clearly having a whale of a time playing a despicable character; Streep is a marvel to behold. Goldie Hawn is terrific as well but a major surprise here is Bruce Willis who completely goes toe to toe with Streep and matches her all the way. He really makes Herman a very compelling character to watch. Then there is the scene stealer that is Sydney Pollack. He only has one scene (and it’s an unbilled cameo), it’s the most funny scene and he completely nails the part of a very surprised doctor who checks on Madeline after she has a nasty fall. Pollack did this once before when he played opposite Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie” (1982) where he literally stole of his scenes and he had some seriously good comic timing.
A big budget and A-list starring vehicle that somehow ended up by becoming a cult classic genre film; “Death Becomes Her” ages like fine wine and only grows in stature.
As a closing gesture I wanted to spotlight that I once interviewed British actor Ian Ogilvy, who has a small part in this film as a character named Chagall, and I asked him how he came to be involved. His answer was short and sweet;
“I did an audition and made Robert Zemeckis laugh. Simple as that”.
Physical Copy
My copy of “Death Becomes Her” is the Scream Factory 4K UHD Collector’s Edition issued in 2024. The image quality is superb and audio wise it’s a top notch disc as well. It’s not a particularly loaded edition features wise but it has a 2016 making of featurette that has comments from Zemeckis, Cundey and others and it’s a fine watch. There’s also a vintage (and short) featurette that is more like a promo piece, a photo gallery and the theatrical trailer.
One look at the trailer tells you that a lot of stuff ended up on the cutting room floor and it’s a shame that none of the excised scenes couldn’t have surfaced as a deleted scenes package.
Why physical copy?
I always encourage the acquisition of physical copies as I dread the day when films will only exist as files on computers and through streaming services. The companies that put the effort into making the discs, create new artwork or reproduce the originals, issue booklets and much more deserve all the financial support they can. Therefore I will always mention the Blu-rays or DVD’s (and yes; also if I review something streamed through Netflix or the like) even though I gain nothing from it personally.