Review: The Corpse Bride

I know, I know. How surprising is it that I post a review of a movie starring Johnny Depp right after I post an admission of my man crush for him? Ah, so is life. Anyhoo, on with the review...

Let me start by saying that the art direction on this movie is astounding. The sets are beautifully eerie, and the puppets, while reminiscent of those from Burton's previous forray into stop-motion moviemaking (The Nightmare Before Christmas), surpsass Jack Skellington and company. At many points in the movie, you'll find yourself thinking, "This has to be computer-generated!"

But, alas, the art direction is the best aspect of the movie. That's not to say that the movie as a whole is bad, though. It does have its moments.

Victor (voiced by Depp) is the only son of the Van Dort family, members of the nouveau riche. As the movie opens, we learn that the next day he is to be married to Victoria (Emily Watson), daughter of the once-rich-but-now-poor Everglots; for her parents, the marriage is a means of regaining the wealth they somehow lost. Victor, nervous about his upcoming nuptials, escapes to the nearby creepy forest to practice his vows and while doing so mistakenly marries the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter).

It is at this point in the movie that the narrative becomes strained, as if Burton (and other writers, including John August, screenwriter of Big Fish) couldn't think of much more of a story. Some sight gags and other jokes at the expense of the ghouls that inhabit the land of the dead seem as though they were included simply to fill time. If this were a short film, say a third of the length, it would benefit from the tightening of the narrative.

The songs also feel included to mostly stretch out the movie into a full-length feature. The best song is the opening number, which is sad to say, since musically it means that it's "all downhill from there" (except, of course, for Danny Elfman's score - Burton and Elfman, a marriage made in some creepy Burtonesque netherworld). I was waiting for some of those great memorable numbers, a la Nightmare, but they never came.

All of this sounds as if I hated the movie, but that's far from the truth. It's just that I've been waiting for another Burton puppet movie for over ten years, so this movie has some big shoes to fill. It's still a great movie to see, if only for the spectacle.

Grade: B+