Team Experience is celebrating Winona Ryder this week as she turns 50.
by Ginny O'Keefe
He’s the ghost with the most, babe. It’s Beetlejuice. The wacky, morbid and over the top 1988 Tim Burton joint revolves around Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) a couple living in an idyllic Connecticut countryside. They are tragically killed after their car swerves off a bridge and into a river. The thing is the film keeps following them and their perspective. Tracing their steps all the way back home which is when they realize…they’re dead! Once home they discover a book titled "Handbook for the Recently Deceased". Soon enough their house is sold to the Deetz family. Charles, his wife Delia and their daughter Lydia all moving out into the country from New York City. They begin to tear apart the house and make it their own. Barbara and Adam want them gone so it’s time to start haunting. Eventually they turn to someone (or something in the form of Michael Keaton) they never should have for help: Betelgeuse (pronunciation: beetle juice).
The greatness of this film is its supreme wackiness. Nothing is too out there for this movie. It’s got sandworms, moving sculptures, Harry Belafonte musical numbers, dead caseworkers, Catherine O’Hara wearing gloves as a headband, goofy production design, and a perfect balancing of message and escapism. My favorite character in the film is Lydia played by the great Winona Ryder...
She herself is strange and unusual…and that’s why we love her. The name is Deetz. Lydia Deetz. And her whole life is one dark room.
Her hobbies include wearing only black, talking to ghosts, and reading the hell out of her parents. This angsty goth is a tad overdramatic but insanely relatable. And thanks to Winona Ryder, this character has become an icon in both the Tim Burton cinematic universe and pop culture as a whole. Lydia is a serious but very accepting and kind young girl. She feels alone even though she is surrounded by people and finds solace in the weird and macabre. She feels ignored by her parents and her method of coping is photography, poetry and befriending the undead. What makes Lydia so endearing is the fact that even though she is just a kid, she is really the most sensible and kind hearted of all the (living) adults. She is loyal and protective for those whom she loves, proving so at one point by being forced into an arranged marriage with Betelgeuse after pleading for his help to save her friends. Lydia also has an incredibly heart-warming and satisfying arc throughout the film. In the beginning she is sullen, quite sad and of course ALONE. But by the end, she has a light about her that is hard to miss. She is happier, she smiles more and she feels loved by all those around her. (Even those who are dead).
Ryder with her dark and dry delivery makes this character a total treat. If there’s one thing Winona Ryder always did better than anyone was teen angst. Ryder doesn’t play Lydia like an annoying dumb kid. She’s curious and open to things around her. The actress plays her with likable vulnerability and ingenuity that make this gothic teen performance one of her very best. No film ending makes me smile more than Winona dancing with a dead football team to a Harry Belafonte tune. Betelgeuse may be the ghost with the most but we all know who the film's MVP is.
tomorrow: Heathers (1989)