HOW 'DEATH BECOMES HER' ILLUSTRATES THE DECLINE OF WRITING SINCE THE 90S.
Say what you will about 90s digital effects. They didn’t age well, but we were still learning. What did age well was the writing. Film makers cared about quality stories then because we had not yet come to rely on CGI to carry a film. Like today. Mediocrity plagues the writing world, and it’s only getting worse. Specifically, that AI abomination, Chat GPT. Only the most incompetent of “writers” would find themselves excited about an uninspired robot doing their work for them.
Fortunately, our outcries have been heard, and the writers of Hollywood are safe. For now. I know. The robots are not responsible for any of our poorly written stories over the last few years. Humans wrote those scripts. This is true. The crux of the problem there is that those humans had been underpaid and unappreciated. Believe me. There is nothing more detrimental to an artist’s creative process than the feeling of hopeless dejection. It’s high time we fought back. With the writer’s strike finally resolved, I can only hope that means the quality of future scripts will rise once more.
In the meantime, I spend my days enjoying the films from a better decade. A time when quality mattered and the economy wasn’t shot to hell (by an old, closed-minded generation so selfish that they still can’t bring themselves to retire #boomerssuck). The 90s are but a shadow of a memory in our minds. Those of us who appreciated those simple days desperately look for ways to remember them.
What better way than through its art? Modern films have become so forgettable and mediocre that the likelihood of me choosing to rewatch one is slim to none. When I’m in the mood for some guaranteed entertainment, I am most likely reach for a film made in the 90s when writers took their time to think through a proper story, a process that requires lots of times and multiple drafts.
Quality over quantity, always.
There are few better examples to this lesson that horror-comedy, Death Becomes Her. Now a beloved cult classic, it follows the story of two competitive frienemies learning the very consequences of rushing their way to success. All for the purpose of showing up the other. With every valuable year that passes, they come no closer to better, healthier lives. Instead, they pour everything they have’ into skin-deep beauty and the appearance of success. Deep down, they are completely vacant of substance. Simply put, they fail. At health. At love. At life. At anything… real.
Too much of their valuable time is spent racing each other to the finish line than building a real legacy and making a positive contribution to society. Even Hellen’s bestselling book is a lie, simply written to cover the truth of her cosmetic quick fix. That book, Forever Young, and its lavish launch party were small pieces to a bigger revenge plot against a woman who’s never been her real friend. These two women have been “friends” for most of their lives. They most likely meet in grade school. From that moment, they engage in a petty competitive relationship that breeds a dangerous obsession.
What both women pretend is a lifelong friendship is a toxic relationship between an image-obsessed narcissist and her codependent victim. However, she doesn’t remain a victim for long. A healthy person would recognize the starlet as a toxic personality, walk away, and allow her to continue a miserable existence. Friendless and alone. A healthy person would cease contact after the first betrayal. Helen is not a healthy person. She is obsessive. Specifically, she is obsessed with Mad.
Her behavior is unusual from the beginning. Why continue to bring her significant others around this notorious homewrecker? Mad has an aggressively obvious pattern of behavior. She steals at least three of Helen’s husbands and fiancé. That should be enough to kick that friendship to the curb unless…. there is something else that Helen hoped to gain by continuing to engage. It has nothing to do with the men for whom they compete.
She claims to have loved all three men, but talk is cheap. Especially between this pair.
Ernest is the third man in this pattern, and it breaks Hell. Not because she loves these men. Not because she wants to keep them. It has nothing to do with passing any test. She brings them around Mad as a part of their twisted game. Each of Mad’s victories marks a failure for Helen. Does the fact that Ernest is a plastic surgeon strike anyone as a coincidence? Helen chose a fiancé with a profession that screams temptation to the image-obsessed starlet. Neither one of them cares about him. They simply love the competition with each other.
And it destroys him. The empty, loveless marriage with Mad costs him everything: his health, career, and self-esteem. Nearly a decade of life he can never get back. Better late than never. It’s only a matter of time before the two women come to blows, quite literally. As the truth of their intentions comes boiling to the surface, they unintentionally provide him with clarity. The truth sets him free. Rightfully so, he walks away. They do nothing to stop him because they have everything, they want in each other.
In the end, Helen gets what she wants. Not a relationship with Ernest, but instead an eternity with Mad. She drinks the same potion as Mad. She relies on her looks rather than her talent like Mad. She lies her way to success like Mad. She even attempts to steal the other’s husband. Just like Mad. Hellen claims to hate the woman, but that’s simply not true. Otherwise, she wouldn’t do any and everything in her power to become Mad. By the time Ernest is done augmenting their looks, the pair looks indistinguishable. Birds of a feather, indeed. With his usefulness expended, they agree to let him go. Whether or not they live up to that promise is something else entirely, but that’s just another sign that he’s the victim of narcissism. From both of them.
Still, he manages to escape leaving behind his money, mansion, and depressing work. The toxic women are welcome to it if it means he can be free. It is only when he is free that his life can finally begin. He’s 50 by then, but better late than never. He finds happiness and love with a new partner. They have a family. He makes friends and travels. He accomplishes everything he could never do while shackled to Hell and Mad. It's a short life, but it is rich and happy. What do Hell and Mad get in the end? An eternity of emptiness. With each other. Hellen Sharp gets her wish to be like the object of her obsession, and she’s as miserable as ever.
Be careful what you wish for.
