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Our favourite Goldie Hawn film is definitely Death Becomes Her, despite her career being filled with excellent performances. If you haven’t watched it, do so right now. If you have a dark sense of humour, it’s possibly one of the finest comedies ever created, not only because of Goldie Hawn’s performance.
We won’t mind if you adamantly refuse to see the movie, though, for whatever reason. There are spoilers coming, so beware. We can describe what occurs. The narrative of two narcissists, novelist Helen Sharp (Hawn) and actor Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep), is told in the comedy-horror film Death Becomes Her.
The two vie for everything, but when Sharp appears to have discovered the formula for perpetual youth, Ashton would do everything to have it. However, not everything that glitters is gold, and it quickly becomes apparent that there are drawbacks to living forever. As a result, the situation quickly transforms into a ghoulishly enjoyable body horror.
We won’t mind if you adamantly refuse to see the movie, though, for whatever reason. There are spoilers coming, so beware. We can describe what occurs. The narrative of two narcissists, novelist Helen Sharp (Hawn) and actor Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep), is told in the comedy-horror film Death Becomes Her.
The two vie for everything, but when Sharp appears to have discovered the formula for perpetual youth, Ashton would do everything to have it. However, not everything that glitters is gold, and it quickly becomes apparent that there are drawbacks to living forever. As a result, the situation quickly transforms into a ghoulishly enjoyable body horror.
Ultimately, the movie shows Sharp and Ashton stranded for all time in everlasting, ageless bodies that are withering away while they use different mortician’s techniques to keep each other appearing “fresh.” That is, until they misstep and tumble down a flight of stairs, when they land as sentient body pieces dispersed on a pavement.
Although it’s a good resolution, Hawn claims that a far better one was left out of the movie because it didn’t do well in crowd tests. Both Sharp and Ashton would have retained their youth and good looks in this other version, but they would have grown weary and bored with endless existence. They would have sought out Dr. Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis), their ex-husband who they both had in common, in search of something to do.
They would have discovered him and seen how, despite his advanced age, he had lived life to the fullest, spending his last moments with the true love of his life. Hawn favoured this conclusion because she thought it emphasised the movie’s caution about the risks of prioritising the flimsy above the real.
“It didn’t test as well; there was another ending that was put on, rewritten, and we actually reshot it,” Hawn explained. “And, unfortunately, it wasn’t an up-funny ending. It didn’t have the punch the rest of the movie had, it wasn’t special effects and wild and crazy, and people [were left] just sort of deflated.”
To be honest, we actually agree with Hawn. Death grows Her has a melancholy that is lost in the third act as it grows increasingly ridiculous, which is unfortunate. We won’t lie, however—it is somewhat therapeutic to watch Ashton and Sharp at their lowest points by the movie’s conclusion.