Tim Burton is a big fan of the German expressionist movies of the 1920s, where silent actors caked on makeup to bring out their eyes, which had to carry the brunt of the expression that they were trying to get across in the story. He likes expressive eyes in his movies so much that it almost seems like a strange joke that he has an upcoming movie that is actually titled Big Eyes. It’s no wonder, then, that his go-to leading man is a guy with perhaps more expressive eyes than anyone in movies in the past 25 years, Johnny Depp.
The three most striking ocular performances from Depp, in my eyes at least, all come from collaborative efforts with Tim Burton. The relatively recent Sweeney Todd adaptation with Depp starring in the titular role relied heavily on Depp’s ability to convey the anger and vengeance at the core of the Sweeney character but also the pain and sadness that were the source of his anger. Thirteen years prior to playing Sweeney, Depp portrayed the infamous B-movie director Ed Wood in Ed Wood, where his facial expressions bring out the comedic as well as sympathetic aspects of the character, a delicate balance between making him an outright joke and not allowing his absurdity to breathe at all. His strongest work, understandably due to his lack of dialogue, comes in Edward Scissorhands, where Edward basically communicates most through merely the movement of his eyes. It’s a heartbreaking performance that relies purely on this silent expression to make its deep, emotional impact.
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