Do people really want to live forever? This idea for shows and movies have been used numerous times going back to Twilight zone episodes "Escape clause" and "Long live Walter Jamison". In both those episodes, the main character finds out that they eventually get tired of living when they know it will be eternal. That doesn't happen in "Death becomes her" with the two leads Madelyn (Meryl Streep) and Helen (Goldie Hawn), but the concern of getting tired of living if alive forever is brought up by Earnest (Bruce Willis) when the eternal potion is offered to him. He doesn't look at eternal life as a miracle, even though he yells that line after discovering Madelyn's secret. We get a creepy twist; your body, if you don't take the proper care of, will start to rot after taking the potion even when they're moving and talking just like they're alive. Basically, they're still alive while the body is technically now a dead corpse, and will continue to rot and decay just like any dead corpse. Therefore, the end scene with Madelyn and Helen is not easy to look at for sensitive squeamish eyes. But you'll only rot after taking the potion if you do something to your body that would've normally killed you before taking it. That explains why Isabel (the rich potion dealer) still looks great many years later, but Madelyn and Helen don't (due to Madelyn breaking her neck after getting pushed down the stairs and Helen getting shot).
Early on, in a Broadway theater, people are streaming out mid show badmouthing the show big time. I sort of see why, the show was like a combo of a bad imitation of classic showgirl dancing, disco sounding music thrown in for some reason, and Madelyn singing in a flat unenthusiastic voice. I didn't see any real dancing talent and according to one of the badmouthers walking out, the story was a cheap ripoff from something better. I would've walked out with them. After the show (with Earnest being the one applauding), Helen introduces fiancé Earnest to Mad to see if he'll pass the Madelyn test. He does NOT, to say the least. Earnest immediately leaves Helen and marries Mad, leaving Helen clutching her fists so tight that there's blood. I kinda liked that. I also sort of liked the part where Helen gained like 100 pounds (very convincing fat suit, like the fat suit Gweneth Paltrow wore in "Shallow Hal"). Helen basically gave up on life spending her time stuffing herself with tons of junk food including eating entire cans of frosting on their own, rewatching scenes in Mad's movies where she's getting killed and wishing it were real. She's then put in an asylum. Next scene years later, we learn that right after leaving the asylum, Helen took the potion. There should've been a scene showing Helen taking the potion showing us seeing the special effects of her suddenly losing all that weight and looking much younger again. Present time (1992), Mad is tired of hubby Earnest (now noticeably older and worn down looking) drinking, indulging in self pity, and never being able to please her anymore (he's become flaccid). That's why Mad cheats on Earnest with some young guy. Then she catches the young guy with a young girl, and Mad freaks out driving all crazy dodging cars. I saw that situation as a "what goes around, comes around" deal, since Mad previously stole a man away from someone herself, and was now cheating on one man to be with another. Then Mad meets a sort of effeminate French man at her health spa after getting jealous of the young beauty who's working on her. He gives Mad a card for a "very select group". We then get the great potion scene at the fancy secluded palace of Isabell, the young beauty (looking very sexy with what she wears) who's really elderly but has taken the potion. I saw the sign of Isabel really being older than she looked with her revealing having served Greta Garbo. The reference to her having known Garbo may've gone over some people's heads. I just knew it from Isabella's "I vant to be alone" comment, since I've seen and own Garbo's "Grand hotel". About the cost of the potion, there's a sight on this movie where people were debating the cost of the potion since we don't get a good look at the check Mad wrote to Isabell. One million dollars was people's best guess, that's why mainly celebrities were the ones at the Palace (we see Elvis in a scene there, and that was also a good play on the whole "is Elvis really dead?" theme (and the "I saw Elvis in a mall" theme)). After Mad takes the potion, we see the first of many special effects when we see Mad's body suddenly getting younger. It's next where the first gruesome effects take place where Mad and Helen have horrible incidents, getting pushed down the stairs and getting shot with a double barrel shot gun, but are still alive and have very graphic visual "injuries" from it. A lot of the films remainder is centered around that. And that's why in my opinion that part of the film was not as good. Then is the scene of Mad and Helen trying to get Earnest to take the potion and Earnest's visit with Isabell (who again looks very sexy coming out of that pool). Too many scenes in the last part of the movie of Mad and Helen starting to decay, and them relying on Earnest to patch them up. The scene in the hospital with the doctor creeped me out too when he had a heart attack after seeing that Mad was dead but also still alive, too much for him to handle, I guess.
Early on, in a Broadway theater, people are streaming out mid show badmouthing the show big time. I sort of see why, the show was like a combo of a bad imitation of classic showgirl dancing, disco sounding music thrown in for some reason, and Madelyn singing in a flat unenthusiastic voice. I didn't see any real dancing talent and according to one of the badmouthers walking out, the story was a cheap ripoff from something better. I would've walked out with them. After the show (with Earnest being the one applauding), Helen introduces fiancé Earnest to Mad to see if he'll pass the Madelyn test. He does NOT, to say the least. Earnest immediately leaves Helen and marries Mad, leaving Helen clutching her fists so tight that there's blood. I kinda liked that. I also sort of liked the part where Helen gained like 100 pounds (very convincing fat suit, like the fat suit Gweneth Paltrow wore in "Shallow Hal"). Helen basically gave up on life spending her time stuffing herself with tons of junk food including eating entire cans of frosting on their own, rewatching scenes in Mad's movies where she's getting killed and wishing it were real. She's then put in an asylum. Next scene years later, we learn that right after leaving the asylum, Helen took the potion. There should've been a scene showing Helen taking the potion showing us seeing the special effects of her suddenly losing all that weight and looking much younger again. Present time (1992), Mad is tired of hubby Earnest (now noticeably older and worn down looking) drinking, indulging in self pity, and never being able to please her anymore (he's become flaccid). That's why Mad cheats on Earnest with some young guy. Then she catches the young guy with a young girl, and Mad freaks out driving all crazy dodging cars. I saw that situation as a "what goes around, comes around" deal, since Mad previously stole a man away from someone herself, and was now cheating on one man to be with another. Then Mad meets a sort of effeminate French man at her health spa after getting jealous of the young beauty who's working on her. He gives Mad a card for a "very select group". We then get the great potion scene at the fancy secluded palace of Isabell, the young beauty (looking very sexy with what she wears) who's really elderly but has taken the potion. I saw the sign of Isabel really being older than she looked with her revealing having served Greta Garbo. The reference to her having known Garbo may've gone over some people's heads. I just knew it from Isabella's "I vant to be alone" comment, since I've seen and own Garbo's "Grand hotel". About the cost of the potion, there's a sight on this movie where people were debating the cost of the potion since we don't get a good look at the check Mad wrote to Isabell. One million dollars was people's best guess, that's why mainly celebrities were the ones at the Palace (we see Elvis in a scene there, and that was also a good play on the whole "is Elvis really dead?" theme (and the "I saw Elvis in a mall" theme)). After Mad takes the potion, we see the first of many special effects when we see Mad's body suddenly getting younger. It's next where the first gruesome effects take place where Mad and Helen have horrible incidents, getting pushed down the stairs and getting shot with a double barrel shot gun, but are still alive and have very graphic visual "injuries" from it. A lot of the films remainder is centered around that. And that's why in my opinion that part of the film was not as good. Then is the scene of Mad and Helen trying to get Earnest to take the potion and Earnest's visit with Isabell (who again looks very sexy coming out of that pool). Too many scenes in the last part of the movie of Mad and Helen starting to decay, and them relying on Earnest to patch them up. The scene in the hospital with the doctor creeped me out too when he had a heart attack after seeing that Mad was dead but also still alive, too much for him to handle, I guess.