Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Madeline is married to Ernest, who was once her arch-rival Helen's fiancé. After recovering from a mental breakdown, Helen vows to kill Madeline and steal back Ernest. Unfortunately for everyone, the introduction of a magic potion causes things to be a great deal more complicated than a mere murder plot.
Death Becomes Her is a wonderfully singular dark comedy that earns its cult status through sheer audacity. Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn throw themselves into gleefully grotesque physical comedy with remarkable commitment, while Bruce Willis plays the straight man with surprising deftness — the ensemble is genuinely exceptional. The film's novelty is its greatest strength: the body-horror-as-vanity-satire concept is executed with a distinctive, campy cruelty that feels truly one-of-a-kind, and its groundbreaking early CGI effects were revolutionary for 1992. The plot is functional but thin, existing mainly as a delivery mechanism for set pieces rather than a fully developed narrative. The ending, while tonally consistent, feels anticlimactic and rushed — the final coda is more of a shrug than a satisfying resolution, undercutting the savage wit that precedes it.