Death Becomes Her
Encyclopedia
Death Becomes Her is a 1992 American dark slapstick
screwball comedy
fantasy film
directed by Robert Zemeckis
and starring Goldie Hawn
, Meryl Streep
, and Bruce Willis
. The film focuses on a childish pair of rivals who drink a magic potion
that promises eternal youth
.
However, after they both are killed in their fight for the love of a neurotic mortician, the potion revives them as the undead
and they are forced to maintain their deteriorating bodies forever. Death Becomes Her won an Academy Award
for Best Visual Effects
. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a commercial success.
in New York City
, the narcissistic
, manipulative
, aging actress Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep
) performs in "Songbird", an ill-conceived musical version of Sweet Bird of Youth
. Aspiring writer Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn
), Madeline's longtime rival, is taking in the show with her fiancé, plastic surgeon Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis
), who is the only person in the audience enjoying himself. Helen and Ernest are invited to Madeline's dressing room, where Madeline shows an interest in Ernest. One night while Ernest is prepping for surgery Madeline invites him to dinner. Ernest tells Helen about his dinner date with Madeline, but states that the dinner was just business. Despite Ernest's assurances to Helen that he has no interest in Madeline, the two are married within months.
Seven years later, Helen is an obese
, depressed woman obsessed with Madeline, and is evicted from her apartment. After being arrested by the police, Helen is committed to a psychiatric hospital, where she drives the other patients and doctors crazy with her constant talk about Madeline. Helen pretends she is rehabilitated and is released, all the while plotting revenge on Madeline.
Seven more years later, Madeline's career is all but over. She is living in Beverly Hills with Ernest, now a miserable alcoholic reduced to working as a mortician. At a spa, Madeline is given the business card of a woman who specializes in beauty and youth rejuvenation, though she is dismissive. Madeline and Ernest attend the book signing party for "Forever Young", Helen's first novel, and Helen is thin, youthful, and radiantly beautiful.
Dumbfounded by Helen's appearance, Madeline goes to see her young lover and discovers he has been two-timing her. Madeline retrieves the business card and drives to the home of the mysterious Lisle Von Rhoman (Isabella Rossellini
), a wealthy and beautiful socialite who looks like she is in her thirties, but reveals that she is actually 71. She offers Madeline a magical potion
to reverse the process of aging. Madeline buys the potion and reverts to her youthful form. Lisle warns Madeline to take care of her new body.
Helen has seduced
Ernest and convinced him to kill Madeline. Before their plot can be carried out, Ernest and Madeline have an argument and Ernest pushes Madeline down the stairs; Madeline breaks her neck, landing motionless at the bottom. Believing she is dead, Ernest phones Helen for advice, not noticing as Madeline sits up and approaches him with her head twisted backwards. After a trip to the ER
, where they discover she has no pulse
, a body temperature below 80 degrees, and two shattered vertebrae
, they put her in the morgue
after she faints in the doctor's office. Ernest thinks that her resurrection is a miracle
and a sign that they are meant to be together, and uses his mortician skills to repair the damage to Madeline's body.
When Helen arrives at the house to dispose of Madeline's body, Madeline shoots Helen with a double-barreled shotgun
and blackmails Ernest into helping her dispose of the body. When Helen gets up despite the basketball
-sized hole gaping through her stomach, Madeline correctly guesses that Helen is also a client of Lisle's. The two rivals fight, but after failing to do any real damage to each other they reconcile. Ernest decides he cannot tolerate their bickering over him and decides to leave. Madeline and Helen beg him to repair their damaged bodies. Ernest agrees on the condition that after the work is done they never see him again. Madeline and Helen realize his repairs would only be temporary; they will need him to perform routine maintenance to their bodies forever. They conspire to make Ernest drink the potion
as well, first offering him a roofie-ridden cocktail
. Ernest decides to stop drinking and declines the beverage; they resort to knocking him unconscious before taking him to Lisle. Although Lisle makes an impassioned argument for immortality and offers to give the potion to Ernest free of charge, he refuses it--a life lived forever, knowing that everyone else in the world would continue to age and eventually die, is worthless to him. He puts the bottle in his pocket and attempts to flee.
Ernest climbs across the roof of Lisle's mansion to get to an exit, but slips after being startled by Madeline and Helen. His suspenders
get caught on a rain gutter
, dangling him above the ground. Madeline and Helen beg him to drink the potion so he will survive the fall. Knowing how unpleasant immortality would be in their company, he drops the potion, then falls after it when his suspenders break. After crashing through the skylight
glass ceiling he lands in Lisle's swimming pool
and escapes, leaving town and disappearing without a trace. The two women realize they will have to take care of one another for the rest of their "lives".
Thirty-seven years later, Ernest has died and Madeline and Helen are attending his funeral
. Ernest is eulogized as having lived a good and adventurous life, accomplishing much more during his life than Helen and Madeline are likely to do in immortality. While wiping her eyes, Helen smears paint
on her skin. She asks Madeline for a can of spray paint, and the two bicker when they realize it is missing.
Outside the church
, the two raise their veils to reveal faces caked with smeared makeup and peeling layers of hardware paint over their gray, rotted skin. Still bickering with Madeline, Helen steps on the missing can of spray paint and begins to lose her balance. When Madeline deliberately hesitates in helping her back up, the impatient Helen grabs her and the two women tumble to the bottom of the steps, shattering to pieces. Madeline's tottering, decapitated head is asked by Helen's head, "Do you remember where you parked the car?"
based on 19 reviews (10 positive, 9 negative). Gene Siskel
and Roger Ebert
both gave the film a 'thumbs down', commenting that while the film had great special effects, it lacked any real substance or character depth.
Despite the lackluster reception, it won an Academy Award and Meryl Streep was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. The film opened at #1 at the box office with $12,110,355 upon the also opening weekends of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
and Bebe's Kids
.
s, Meryl Streep
accidentally cut Goldie Hawn
's face, leaving a faint scar. Despite the film winning an Academy Award for its effects, Streep admitted that she disliked working on a project that focused so heavily on special effects, saying:
Computer generated imagery (CGI) software was used to create the skin effects, such as Madeline's twisted neck and stretching skin, and the shotgun hole through Helen's abdomen.
who also composed most of Zemeckis' other films.
Slapstick film
Slapstick films are a type of comedy film that employ slapstick comedy with five main conventions:#Pain without real consequence.#Editing to turn a situation more unrealistic.#Impossible situations.#Zooms to confuse the audience....
screwball comedy
Screwball Comedy
Screwball Comedy is an album by the Japanese band Soul Flower Union. The album found the band going into a simpler, harder-rocking direction, after several heavily world-music influenced albums.-Track listing:...
fantasy film
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
directed by Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
and starring Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
, Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
, and Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
. The film focuses on a childish pair of rivals who drink a magic potion
Potion
A potion is a consumable medicine or poison.In mythology and literature, a potion is usually made by a magician, sorcerer, dragon, fairy or witch and has magical properties. It might be used to heal, bewitch or poison people...
that promises eternal youth
Eternal youth
Eternal youth is the concept of human physical immortality free of aging. The youth referred to is usually meant to be in contrast to the depredations of aging, rather than a specific age of the human lifespan....
.
However, after they both are killed in their fight for the love of a neurotic mortician, the potion revives them as the undead
Undead
Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...
and they are forced to maintain their deteriorating bodies forever. Death Becomes Her won an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Visual Effects
Academy Award for Visual Effects
The Academy Award for Visual Effects is an Academy Award given for the best achievement in visual effects.-History of the award:The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first recognized the technical contributions of special effects to movies at its inaugural dinner in 1928, presenting a...
. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a commercial success.
Plot
In 1978 on BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the narcissistic
Narcissistic personality disorder
Narcissistic personality disorder is a personality disorder in which the individual is described as being excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity...
, manipulative
Psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...
, aging actress Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
) performs in "Songbird", an ill-conceived musical version of Sweet Bird of Youth
Sweet Bird of Youth
Sweet Bird of Youth is a 1959 play by Tennessee Williams which tells the story of a gigolo and drifter, Chance Wayne, who returns to his home town as the accompaniment of a faded movie star, Princess Kosmonopolis , whom he hopes to use to help him break into the movies...
. Aspiring writer Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
), Madeline's longtime rival, is taking in the show with her fiancé, plastic surgeon Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
), who is the only person in the audience enjoying himself. Helen and Ernest are invited to Madeline's dressing room, where Madeline shows an interest in Ernest. One night while Ernest is prepping for surgery Madeline invites him to dinner. Ernest tells Helen about his dinner date with Madeline, but states that the dinner was just business. Despite Ernest's assurances to Helen that he has no interest in Madeline, the two are married within months.
Seven years later, Helen is an obese
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
, depressed woman obsessed with Madeline, and is evicted from her apartment. After being arrested by the police, Helen is committed to a psychiatric hospital, where she drives the other patients and doctors crazy with her constant talk about Madeline. Helen pretends she is rehabilitated and is released, all the while plotting revenge on Madeline.
Seven more years later, Madeline's career is all but over. She is living in Beverly Hills with Ernest, now a miserable alcoholic reduced to working as a mortician. At a spa, Madeline is given the business card of a woman who specializes in beauty and youth rejuvenation, though she is dismissive. Madeline and Ernest attend the book signing party for "Forever Young", Helen's first novel, and Helen is thin, youthful, and radiantly beautiful.
Dumbfounded by Helen's appearance, Madeline goes to see her young lover and discovers he has been two-timing her. Madeline retrieves the business card and drives to the home of the mysterious Lisle Von Rhoman (Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.-Background and early life:Rossellini is a...
), a wealthy and beautiful socialite who looks like she is in her thirties, but reveals that she is actually 71. She offers Madeline a magical potion
Potion
A potion is a consumable medicine or poison.In mythology and literature, a potion is usually made by a magician, sorcerer, dragon, fairy or witch and has magical properties. It might be used to heal, bewitch or poison people...
to reverse the process of aging. Madeline buys the potion and reverts to her youthful form. Lisle warns Madeline to take care of her new body.
Helen has seduced
Seduction
In social science, seduction is the process of deliberately enticing a person to engage. The word seduction stems from Latin and means literally "to lead astray". As a result, the term may have a positive or negative connotation...
Ernest and convinced him to kill Madeline. Before their plot can be carried out, Ernest and Madeline have an argument and Ernest pushes Madeline down the stairs; Madeline breaks her neck, landing motionless at the bottom. Believing she is dead, Ernest phones Helen for advice, not noticing as Madeline sits up and approaches him with her head twisted backwards. After a trip to the ER
ER
ER or Er may refer to:* Еmergency room, a department of a medical facility that specializes in the acute care of patients without any prior appointments* ER, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the country of Eritrea* ER, the IATA code of Astar Air Cargo...
, where they discover she has no pulse
Pulse
In medicine, one's pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the heartbeat by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed against a bone, such as at the neck , at the wrist , behind the knee , on the inside of the elbow , and near the...
, a body temperature below 80 degrees, and two shattered vertebrae
Cervical fracture
A cervical fracture is commonly called a broken neck. There are seven cervical vertebrae in the human neck, and the fracture of any can be catastrophic. The most common causes are traffic accidents or diving into shallow water...
, they put her in the morgue
Morgue
A morgue or mortuary is used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification, or removal for autopsy or disposal by burial, cremation or otherwise...
after she faints in the doctor's office. Ernest thinks that her resurrection is a miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
and a sign that they are meant to be together, and uses his mortician skills to repair the damage to Madeline's body.
When Helen arrives at the house to dispose of Madeline's body, Madeline shoots Helen with a double-barreled shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
and blackmails Ernest into helping her dispose of the body. When Helen gets up despite the basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
-sized hole gaping through her stomach, Madeline correctly guesses that Helen is also a client of Lisle's. The two rivals fight, but after failing to do any real damage to each other they reconcile. Ernest decides he cannot tolerate their bickering over him and decides to leave. Madeline and Helen beg him to repair their damaged bodies. Ernest agrees on the condition that after the work is done they never see him again. Madeline and Helen realize his repairs would only be temporary; they will need him to perform routine maintenance to their bodies forever. They conspire to make Ernest drink the potion
Potion
A potion is a consumable medicine or poison.In mythology and literature, a potion is usually made by a magician, sorcerer, dragon, fairy or witch and has magical properties. It might be used to heal, bewitch or poison people...
as well, first offering him a roofie-ridden cocktail
Cocktail
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...
. Ernest decides to stop drinking and declines the beverage; they resort to knocking him unconscious before taking him to Lisle. Although Lisle makes an impassioned argument for immortality and offers to give the potion to Ernest free of charge, he refuses it--a life lived forever, knowing that everyone else in the world would continue to age and eventually die, is worthless to him. He puts the bottle in his pocket and attempts to flee.
Ernest climbs across the roof of Lisle's mansion to get to an exit, but slips after being startled by Madeline and Helen. His suspenders
Suspenders
Suspenders or braces are fabric or leather straps worn over the shoulders to hold up trousers. Straps may be elasticated, either entirely or only at attachment ends and most straps are of woven cloth forming an X or Y shape at the back. Braces are typically attached to trousers with buttons...
get caught on a rain gutter
Rain gutter
A rain gutter is a narrow channel, or trough, forming the component of a roof system which collects and diverts rainwater shed by the roof....
, dangling him above the ground. Madeline and Helen beg him to drink the potion so he will survive the fall. Knowing how unpleasant immortality would be in their company, he drops the potion, then falls after it when his suspenders break. After crashing through the skylight
Skylight
Skylight may refer to:* Skylight * Skylight , by David Hare* Skylight of a lava tube, a hole in the ceiling of the tube* Skylight, Arkansas* Skylight, a short film by David Clayton Rogers* Skylight Pictures, a film company...
glass ceiling he lands in Lisle's swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
and escapes, leaving town and disappearing without a trace. The two women realize they will have to take care of one another for the rest of their "lives".
Thirty-seven years later, Ernest has died and Madeline and Helen are attending his funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
. Ernest is eulogized as having lived a good and adventurous life, accomplishing much more during his life than Helen and Madeline are likely to do in immortality. While wiping her eyes, Helen smears paint
Paint
Paint is any liquid, liquefiable, or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film. One may also consider the digital mimicry thereof...
on her skin. She asks Madeline for a can of spray paint, and the two bicker when they realize it is missing.
Outside the church
Church
In the Christian religion, a church building is a building or structure whose primary purpose is to facilitate the meeting of a church. Originally, Jewish Christians met in synagogues, such as the Cenacle, and in one another's homes, known as house churches...
, the two raise their veils to reveal faces caked with smeared makeup and peeling layers of hardware paint over their gray, rotted skin. Still bickering with Madeline, Helen steps on the missing can of spray paint and begins to lose her balance. When Madeline deliberately hesitates in helping her back up, the impatient Helen grabs her and the two women tumble to the bottom of the steps, shattering to pieces. Madeline's tottering, decapitated head is asked by Helen's head, "Do you remember where you parked the car?"
Cast
- Goldie HawnGoldie HawnGoldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
as Helen Sharp - Meryl StreepMeryl StreepMary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
as Madeline Ashton - Bruce WillisBruce WillisWalter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
as Dr. Ernest Menville - Isabella RosselliniIsabella RosselliniIsabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.-Background and early life:Rossellini is a...
as Lisle von Rhoman - Ian OgilvyIan OgilvyIan Raymond Ogilvy is an English film and television actor.-Early life:He was born in Woking, Surrey, England, the son of advertising executive Francis Ogilvy and actress Aileen Raymond .He was educated at Sunningdale School, Eton College and at the Royal Academy of...
as Chagall - Adam StorkeAdam StorkeAdam J. Storke is an American actor who has starred in television and film. He is best known for playing Julia Roberts' love interest in the 1988 hit film Mystic Pizza and as Larry Underwood in the 1994 hit Stephen King mini series The Stand.-Biography:Storke was born in New York City, New York,...
as Dakota - Nancy Fish as Rose
- Alaina Reed HallAlaina Reed HallAlaina Reed Hall was an American actress best known for her roles as Olivia, Gordon's younger sister, on the long-running children's television series Sesame Street, and Rose Lee Holloway on the NBC sitcom 227.-Early life and career:Born Bernice Ruth Reed in Springfield, Ohio, she began her career...
as Psychologist - Michelle JohnsonMichelle Johnson (actress)Michelle Johnson is an American actress, probably best known for her role in Blame It on Rio.-Career:Director Stanley Donen signed her, as a 17-year-old, to appear as Michael Caine's love interest in the romantic comedy film Blame It on Rio...
as Anna - Mary Ellen TrainorMary Ellen TrainorMary Ellen Trainor is an American actress best remembered as either Dr. Stephanie Woods in Lethal Weapon or as Harriet Walsh in The Goonies.Trainor was born in Chicago, Illinois...
as Vivian Adams - William FrankfatherWilliam FrankfatherWilliam Frankfather was an American film and television actor.Frankfather guest starred in many popular television series of the late 20th century including The A-Team, Hill Street Blues, Remington Steele, Murphy Brown, Picket Fences, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Melrose Place, Empty Nest, Wings...
as Mr. Franklin - John IngleJohn IngleJohn Ingle is an American actor known for his role as scheming patriarch Edward Quartermaine on the ABC daytime drama, General Hospital.-Career:...
as Eulogist - Debra Jo RuppDebra Jo RuppDebra Jo Rupp is an American film and television actress, perhaps best known for her role as Kitty Forman on the long-running Fox sitcom, That '70s Show...
as Patient - FabioFabio LanzoniFabio Lanzoni ; born March 15, 1959), widely known simply as Fabio, is a famous international Italian fashion model, spokesperson and actor who appeared on the cover of hundreds of romance novels throughout the 1980s and 1990s....
as Lisle's bodyguard - Sydney PollackSydney PollackSydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
as E.R. Doctor (Uncredited)
Reception
The film received mixed reviews. It currently holds a 53% approval rating at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
based on 19 reviews (10 positive, 9 negative). Gene Siskel
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
and Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
both gave the film a 'thumbs down', commenting that while the film had great special effects, it lacked any real substance or character depth.
Despite the lackluster reception, it won an Academy Award and Meryl Streep was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. The film opened at #1 at the box office with $12,110,355 upon the also opening weekends of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a 1992 American action/comedy/horror film about a Valley girl cheerleader named Buffy who learns that it is her fate to hunt vampires. The original script for the film was written by Joss Whedon, who later created the darker and more acclaimed TV series of the same name...
and Bebe's Kids
Bebe's Kids
Bébé's Kids is a 1992 animated comedy film produced by the Reginald Hudlin and Hyperion Pictures, directed by Bruce W...
.
Awards and nominations
| Award | Role | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Academy Award | Best Visual Effects | |
| BAFTA Award BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects *2010 - Inception - Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb**Alice in Wonderland - Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Sean Phillips and Carey Villegas**Black Swan - Dan Schrecker... |
Best Visual Effects | |
| Golden Globe | Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical (Meryl Streep) | |
| Saturn Award Saturn Award The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within... |
Best Actor (Bruce Willis) | |
| Saturn Award Saturn Award The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within... |
Best Actress (Meryl Streep) | |
| Saturn Award Saturn Award The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within... |
Best Supporting Actress (Isabella Rossellini) | |
| Saturn Award Saturn Award The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within... |
Best Visual Effects |
Special effects
Death Becomes Her was a technically complex movie to make, and the production had a fair number of mishaps. For example, in a scene where Helen Sharp and Madeline Ashton are battling with shovelShovel
A shovel is a tool for digging, lifting, and moving bulk materials, such as soil, coal, gravel, snow, sand, or ore. Shovels are extremely common tools that are used extensively in agriculture, construction, and gardening....
s, Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
accidentally cut Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
's face, leaving a faint scar. Despite the film winning an Academy Award for its effects, Streep admitted that she disliked working on a project that focused so heavily on special effects, saying:
My first, my last, my only. I think it's tedious. Whatever concentration you can apply to that kind of comedy is just shredded. You stand there like a piece of machinery — they should get machinery to do it. I loved how it turned out. But it's not fun to act to a lampstand. "Pretend this is Goldie, right here! Uh, no, I'm sorry, Bob, she went off the mark by five centimeters, and now her head won't match her neck!" It was like being at the dentist.
Computer generated imagery (CGI) software was used to create the skin effects, such as Madeline's twisted neck and stretching skin, and the shotgun hole through Helen's abdomen.
Soundtrack
The score was composed by American film composer Alan SilvestriAlan Silvestri
Alan Anthony Silvestri is an American film composer and conductor.-Career:Silvestri is best known for his collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis, having scored Romancing the Stone , the Back to the Future trilogy , Who Framed Roger Rabbit , Death Becomes Her , Forrest Gump , Contact ,...
who also composed most of Zemeckis' other films.