Death Becomes Her

DEATH BECOMES HER

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: nudity, dark comedy

Rated:

I have what is known as a "dark" sense of humor. I find things funny in ways that some of my family members cannot understand. Death Becomes Her has a very morbid sense of humor but it's just the kind of thing that leaves me in stitches. So if you like that kind of quirk, this is a good movie for you, and if not, make a u-turn and go find some slapstick to bring a smile to your face and a perk to your evening.

Everyone hates the newest musical on Broadway. Except Dr. Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis). The world-renowned plastic surgeon has a thing for the leading actress, Madeline (Meryl Streep). He is so blinded by her greatness that he fails to see the musical is less than good, in fact it's downright awful, a fact that is all too plain to his fiancée, Helen (Goldie Hawn). Ever since high school, Helen and Madeline have been both friends and rivals. Madeline has managed to steal away every boy Helen has ever been in love with, but just this once she wants to prove that a guy would rather have her. Unfortunately, this plan backfires -- Madeline and Ernest wind up happily married, and Helen eats herself into weighing four hundred pounds. It is only at mental therapy that she decides to take control of her life and teach Madeline a lesson.

Seven years have passed since the wedding. Madeline and Ernest can barely stand one another, and both their careers have gone down the tubes. Madeline has not worked in months, and Ernest is now a glorified mortician. Helen, on the other hand, is a bestselling author and has invited them to her latest book premiere. Madeline is horrified to see that once-plump Helen is slender and gorgeous. Despite her age, she doesn't look a day over twenty-five, and there's not a wrinkle or bulge in sight. Unsatisfied with her own aging process, Madeline goes to desperate measures to compete. She takes a magical potion sold to her by a beautiful foreigner (Isabella Rossellini) without realizing the consequences -- that she no longer has a pulse. And when Ernest decides with a little help from Helen to get rid of his wife, Madeline's new ashen hue is the least of her problems.

I have seen Meryl Streep in quite a few things and this is one of her funniest roles. She can have you laughing in five seconds flat, particularly with her outrageous reactions. Goldie Hawn shines, whether it's stalking around in her creepy contact lenses, or pitching a diabolical murder plot to Ernest. And did I mention the chance to see her in a fat suit? As for Bruce Willis, it's nothing less than a pleasure to see him in a movie where he is not flying through windows, screaming all the time (at least, not in anger) and shooting everything that moves. For a film of this nature, there's not an enormous amount of offensive content. A dozen profanities intrude, along with a couple harsh abuses of deity. The violence is not graphic so much as morbidly funny, like a woman falling down the stairs and getting up only to realize that her head is on backwards. It can also be dislocated, popped back into place, twisted around, and mashed into her shoulders. And then there's the gigantic hole another woman has through her stomach after she's been blasted with a shotgun.

There's no sexual content, but some conversation about it. Madeline taunts her husband by making a remark on his inadequacy as a lover. Helen tries to seduce him with her newfound ability to say "sexy." Madeline is having an affair with a much younger man; she catches a nude glimpse of his new girlfriend through the window. The biggest problem is Isabella's character, who is half dressed. She is essentially topless in one important scene; her only covering is a fantastic adornment of layered beads. They do okay covering her up from the front, but not from the side. Later, her bare backside is shown as she walks out of the pool. It's implied that Ernest sees everything. When she does don a robe, it's split down the front and shows a lot of skin. The women wear a lot of tight clothing to show off their newly slender bodies, and for comic purposes, a woman's clothed chest is shown "popping" back into place.

There is a good message beneath all the comedic chaos, and that life is best lived out well rather than spent searching for ways to prolong it. When offered the potion, one man contemplates what eternal life would mean -- that everyone around him would die. He goes on to have a happy and full life, and at his funeral the minister says he will live on through the memories everyone has of him, and all the good he did in so many lives. By contrast, Madeline and Helen's lives pretty much fall apart, since being the walking dead isn't all it's cracked up to be. But if you're looking for a moral beyond that, forget it. The movie is just having too much fun with its special effects and snappy dialogue to give you time to think. It is, quite plainly, a movie that you will either be incredibly offended by or downright amused. I thought it was hilarious but know for a fact my mother would feel differently.