Death Becomes Her (1992) * *

 

Directed by:  Robert Zemeckis

Starring:  Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis, Isabella Rossellini, Sydney Pollack

Writer Helen Sharp (Hawn) makes a fundamental error in introducing her boyfriend, famed plastic surgeon Ernest Menville (Willis) to her best friend, famed actress Madeline Ashton (Streep).   Madeline takes a liking to Ernest and within two months has stolen him away from Helen and marries him.  Helen gains one hundred or so pounds and has to be forcibly removed from her apartment for non-payment of rent.   She's obsessed with Madeline to the point she has to be institutionalized.   

Years later, Ernest is no longer a plastic surgeon but a lowly mortician, having lost his license to perform plastic surgery.   He and Madeline are miserable, with Madeline carrying on affairs with hunks just to remind herself she's desirable.  The hunky guy winds up dumping her.   Madeline is obsessed with trying to thwart the aging process and stumbles across the rich, powerful Lisle (Rossellini) who carries a potion containing the secret to eternal life in a tiny vial.  Madeline drinks it and soon her face and body look years younger.   She will never grow any older, but there's a catch (as always) and it's this:  You may look younger, but you'll be dead.   If you maim or harm yourself, you won't be able to fix it and not even Ernest's skill can help.   Helen soon shows up at Madeline's doorstep looking like a million bucks and wanting to steal Ernest back, having taken the potion herself.   Does she really want Ernest or does she want Ernest as revenge?   

It's at this point Death Becomes Her becomes a slapstick fest, with characters falling down steps and mangling their bodies in gruesome ways.   Heads are twisted, bones broken, and one character even walks around with a hole in her.   The visual effects, which won the Academy Award in 1992, take over and soon the characters scheme and plot against each other as if we cared that much about them in the first place.  The question I have is:  Why is Ernest such a prize that these women would put themselves through this for him?   He's a wreck and an alcoholic.   He is played by Bruce Willis but without the Bruce Willis charm.   Streep and Hawn try their best to be pathetic people we can at least sympathize with somewhat, but the effects overshadow them.   Even with everyone trying desperately to have fun, Death Becomes Her is mired in a dark pall and visuals run amok.