Death Becomes Her Movie Review

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Rent Death Becomes Her on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Martin Donovan & David Koepp
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn, Isabella Rossellini
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
Two women vie for a man and the secret of eternal beauty.

Verdict
The CGI is impressive even today. That's the enduring legacy of this movie. The story presents an idea exploring the cost of beauty, but it's muddled in the comedy and drama of the plot. This is a movie that was able to take advantage of technology, which helps overcome an undeveloped narrative. Two women fight over an unremarkable man past the point of death. That's supposed to be the comedic part as death doesn't stop them.
Skip it.

Review
While I haven't seen this film until now, I distinctly remember the posters and marketing with Bruce Willis holding a candelabra with his arm through Goldie Hawn's torso. It was finally time to see what this is about. The CGI by Industrial Light and Magic was a huge leap forward, and they used techniques pioneered for this film in their next project, Jurassic Park (1993). This was adapted into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical in 2024.

Helen (Goldie Hawn) brings her fiance Ernest (Bruce Willis) to meet her friend and rival, Broadway star Madelaine (Meryl Streep). Ernest is immediate smitten and Helen knows it. He breaks off the engagement then and there.

Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis play Madelaine, Helen, Ernest

Seven years later Helen has become despondent, no longer taking care of herself. She still holds a healthy grudge against Madelaine who married Ernest, but she has a revelation.

Seven more years pass. Madelaine and Ernest are invited to Helen's book release party. The pair don't seem to have a happy marriage. When Madelaine sees that Helen looks better than ever, she's shocked and upset. Madelaine is threatened by someone that can achieve the beauty she feels is slipping through her fingers, and she's desperate to maintain her youth, employing all the tips and tricks she can find. Seeing Helen sends her spinning. She hopes to find solace in her younger lover, but even he spurns her for being too old.

Goldie Hawn plays Helen

It's hinted that Helen is plotting revenge, though we don't know what initially. She wants to woo Ernest away from Madelaine. Meanwhile Madelaine seeks a cure from the bizarre Lisle now that she's desperate to regain her youth at any cost. Madelaine had dismissed her at first, but at this point anything goes. Lisle claims to be decades older than she appears, offering a potion she claims will stop aging. It's everything Madelaine wants. At this point, she's desperate enough to believe it.

The catch is that while it stops one from aging, it also stops death. Ernest snaps after Madelaine insults and demeans him yet again, and he pushes her down the stairs. She appears dead, yet despite the injuries she gets back up due to the potion. She's basically a living zombie. Since Ernest is a mortician, he spray paints her skin to provide a lively glow.

Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep play Helen, Madelaine

Madelaine works in an industry that prizes age and beauty. As hers ebbs, she needs a fix. This potion provides that but of course it has a catch. Streep is always great. Willis hams it up. It's surprising to think he was in Die Hard (1988) just a few years earlier. Once both women are revealed as immortal, this is slapstick style comedy, though Helen with a hole through her torso is impressive CGI. It looks good even thirty years later.

Helen and Madelaine team up to entrap Ernest so that he will take care of them both. They need someone that can reconstruct their bodies as damage occurs. That faces more than a few hurdles. Ernest isn't interested in being their caretaker forever. The pair soon realize that they're tied to each other forever despite just recently having been enemies.

Title Card