Death Becomes Her (1992)

Plot of Death Becomes Her: As young people Helen Sharp, a successful novelist, is going out with plastic surgeon Ernest Melville, when he is asked for advice by musical star Madeline Ashton, and in no time he dumps Helen and marries Madeline. Helen goes into  decline and becomes an inmate in a psychiatric home obsessed with Madeline. Time passes and in middle age Madeline is depressed by her fading looks and Ernest is a drunk, now only employed by undertakers to liven up the corpses at open coffin funerals. When she visits her younger lover she glimpses the pert behind of a young woman and is insulted by him. In desperation she visits Lisle Von Rhuman, a purveyor of an elixir which promised eternal youth.  Ernest reconnects with Helen, who for some reason is slim and youthful despite the passing of the years. She persuades him that he should kill Madeline. Ernest pushes Madeline down the stairs of their mansion killing her, but while he is on the phone with Helen, the body straightens itself out and she totters about with her head on backwards. She cannot die. Later when confronted y Helen, Madeline shoots her, but she also is immortal, and they realise that they must join forces to persuade Ernest to support their cosmetic requirements.

Content; No sex or explicit nudity although Isabella Rossellini conceals her charms with an elaborate necklace, and a body double to emerge from a swimming pool. There is also a lot of serious drinking, Ernest seen drunk fully clothed in the morning. Madeline is seen on stage to start with being glamourous. Later as she is depressed she is motivated to visit the elixir seller, driving her Mercedes through pouring rain. We see Helen also depressed when she loses Ernest, becoming morbidly overweight, evicted from her flat and becoming a psychiatric case. But then later, she hosts a party for a book, now slim and elegant, but still vengeful. After being shot she mostly has a big hole in the middle of her body.  Ernest works on the morgue and it seems his abilities in this area will be useful for the ladies. There are grotesque events since even in bits they do not die.

A View: Although expensive to make this film probably made money. The critic for the Chicago Tribune said that it is “spectacularly tasteless. But it is diabolically inventive and very, very funny”.  I’m not sure that “very very funny” quite fits it. There were few laugh out loud moments for me but I smiled quite a bit, particularly at Bruce Willis as the drunken Ernest. If it was a satire I missed that altogether, but it is probably worth a view for nothing if it comes along on your cable channel.

Fun Fact: While Meryl Streep was happy with the result, she hated the filming, saying it was like going to the dentist.